UC-NRLF 


SB    LI    3Dfl 


HACTEROF 


University  of  California. 

FROM    THK    LIBRARY    OK 

PR.    FRANCIS     LI  E  B  K  K  , 
Professor  of  History  and  Law  in  Columbia  College,  New  Yurk. 


THK  GIFT  OF 

MICHAEL     REESE 

Of 


iiilril  »t  tin-  Tiva- 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESS 


LIFE     AND     CHARACTER 

OF 

ABRAHAM     LINCOLN", 

DELIVERED, 
AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  BOTH  HOUSES  OF  THE 

CONGRESS      OF      AMERICA, 

BEFORE  THEM, 

IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES       . 

AT    WASHINGTON, 

ON    THE    12TH    OF    FEBRUARY,    1866. 


BY    GEORGE    BANCROFT 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 
1866. 


C-  AO  ' 
**XJ 


ORATION. 


SENATORS, 

REPRESENTATIVES  OF  AMERICA: 
That  God  rules  in  the  affairs  of  men  is  as  certain  as 
any  truth  of  physical  science.  On  the  great  moving 
power  which  is  from  the  beginning  hangs  the  world  of 
the  senses  and  the  world  of  thought  and  action.  Eter 
nal  wisdom  marshals  the  great  procession  of  the  na 
tions,  working  in  patient  continuity  through  the  ages, 
never  halting  and  never  abrupt,  encompassing  all  events 
in  its  oversight,  and  ever  effecting  its  will,  though 
mortals  may  slumber  in  apathy  or  oppose  with  mad 
ness.  Kings  are  lifted  up  or  thrown  down,  nations 
come  and  go,  republics  flourish  and  wither,  dynasties 
pass  away  like  a  tale  that  is  told ;  but  nothing  is  by 
chance,  though  men,  in  their  ignorance  of  causes,  may 
think  so.  The  deeds  of  time  are  governed,  as  well  as 
judged,  by  the  decrees  of  eternity.  The  caprice  of 
fleeting  existences  bends  to  the  immovable  omnipotence, 
which  plants  its  foot  on  all  the  centuries  and  has 
neither  change  of  purpose  nor  repose.  Sometimes, 
like  a  messenger  through  the  thick  darkness  of  night, 
it  steps  along  mysterious  ways ;  but  when  the  hour 
strikes  for  a  people,  or  for  mankind,  to  pass  into  a  new 
form  of  being,  unseen  hands  draw  the  bolts  from  the 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 


gates  of  futurity ;  an  all-subduing  influence  prepares 
the  minds  of  men  for  the  coming  revolution;  those  who 
plan  resistance  find  themselves  in  conflict  with  the  w7ill 
of  Providence  rather  than  with  human  devices ;  and 
all  hearts  and  all  understandings,  most  of  all  the  opin 
ions  and  influences  of  the  unwilling,  are  wonderfully 
attracted  and  compelled  to  bear  forward  the  change, 
which  becomes  more  an  obedience  to  the  law  of  uni 
versal  nature  than  submission  to  the  arbitrament  of 
man. 

In  the  fulness  of  time  a  republic  rose  up  in  the  wil 
derness  of  America.  Thousands  of  years  had  passed 
away  before  this  child  of  the  ages  could  be  born. 
From  whatever  there  was  of  good  in  the  systems  of 
former  centuries  she  drew  her  nourishment;  the  wrecks 
of  the  past  were  her  warnings.  With  the  deepest  sen 
timent  of  faith  fixed  in  her  inmost  nature,  she  disen 
thralled  religion  from  bondage  to  temporal  power,  that 
her  worship  might  be  worship  only  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  The  wisdom  which  had  passed  from  India 
through  Greece,  with  what  Greece  had  added  of  her 
own;  the  jurisprudence  of  Rome;  the  mediaeval  munici 
palities  ;  the  Teutonic  method  of  representation ;  the 
political  experience  of  England ;  the  benignant  wisdom 
of  the  expositors  of  the  law  of  nature  and  of  nations  in 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  5 

France  and  Holland,  all  shed  on  her  their  selcctest 
influence.  She  washed  the  gold  of  political  wisdom 
from  the  sands  wherever  it  was  found ;  she  cleft  it  from 
the  rocks ;  she  gleaned  it  among  ruins.  Out  of  all  the 
discoveries  of  statesmen  and  sages,  out  of  all  the  expe 
rience  of  past  human  life,  she  compiled  a  perennial 
political  philosophy,  the  primordial  principles  of  national 
ethics.  The  wise  men  of  Europe  sought  the  best  gov 
ernment  in  a  mixture  of  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and 
democracy ;  America  went  behind  these  names  to  ex 
tract  from  them  the  vital  elements  of  social  forms,  and 
blend  them  harmoniously  in  the  free  commonwealth, 
which  conies  nearest  to  the  illustration  of  the  natural 
equality  of  all  men.  She  intrusted  the  guardianship  of 
established  rights  to  law,  the  movements  of  reform  to 
the  spirit  of  the  people,  and  drew  her  force  from  the 
happy  reconciliation  of  both. 

Republics  had  heretofore  been  limited  to  small  can 
tons,  or  cities  and  their  dependencies ;  America,  doing 
that  of  which  the  like  had  not  before  been  known  upon 
the  earth,  or  believed  by  kings  and  statesmen  to  be  pos 
sible,  extended  her  republic  across  a  continent.  Under 
her  auspices  the  vine  of  liberty  took  deep  root  and 
filled  the  land ;  the  hills  were  covered  with  its  shadow, 
its  boughs  were  like  the  goodly  cedars,  and  reached 


LIFE. AND    CHARACTER    OF 

unto  both  oceans.  The  fame  of  this  only  daughter  of 
freedom  went  out  into  all  the  lands  of  the  earth ;  from 
her  the  human  race  drew  hope. 

Neither  hereditary  monarchy  nor  hereditary  aristoc 
racy  planted  itself  on  our  soil;  the  only  hereditary 
condition  that  fastened  itself  upon  us  was  servitude. 
Nature  works  in  sincerity,  and  is  ever  true  to  its  law. 
The  bee  hives  honey;  the  viper  distils  poison;  the  vine 
stores  its  juices,  and  so  do  the  poppy  and  the  upas.  In 
like  manner  every  thought  and  every  action  ripens  its 
seed,  each  according  to  its  kind.  In  the  individual  man, 
and  still  more  in  a  nation,  a  just  idea  gives  life,  and  pro 
gress,  and  glory;  a  false  conception  portends  disaster, 
shame,  and  death.  A  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago  a 
West  Jersey  Quaker  wrote:  "This  trade  of  importing 
slaves  is  dark  gloominess  hanging  over  the  land;  the 
consequences  will  be  grievous  to  posterity."  At  the 
north  the  growth  of  slavery  was  arrested  by  natural 
causes;  in  the  region  nearest  the  tropics  it  throve  rankly, 
and  worked  itself  into  the  organism  of  the  rising  States. 
Virginia  stood  between  the  two,  with  soil,  and  climate, 
and  resources  demanding  free  labor,  yet  capable  of  the 
profitable  employment  of  the  slave.  She  was  the  land 
of  great  statesmen,  and  they  saw  the  danger  of  her 
being  whelmed  under  the  rising  flood  in  time  to  struggle 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 


against  the  delusions  of  avarice  and  pride.  Ninety-four 
years  ago  the  legislature  of  Virginia  addressed  the 
British  king,  saying  that  the  trade  in  slaves  was  "of 
great  inhumanity,"  was  opposed  to  the  "security  and 
happiness"  of  their  constituents,  "would  in  time  have 
the  most  destructive  influence,"  and  "endanger  their 
very  existence."  And  the  king  answered  them  that, 
"upon  pain  of  his  highest  displeasure,  the  importa 
tion  of  slaves  should  not  be  in  any  respect  obstructed." 
"Pharisaical  Britain,"  wrote  Franklin  in  behalf  of  Vir 
ginia,  "to  pride  thyself  in  setting  free  a  single  slave  that 
happened  to  land  on  thy  coasts,  while  thy  laws  continue 
a  traffic  whereby  so  many  hundreds  of  thousands  are 
dragged  into  a  slavery  that  is  entailed  on  their  posterity." 
"A  serious  view  of  this  subject,"  said  Patrick  Henry  in 
1773,  "gives  a  gloomy  prospect  to  future  times."  In 
the  same  year  George  Mason  wrote  to  the  legislature 
of  Virginia:  "The  laws  of  impartial  Providence  may 
avenge  our  injustice  upon  our  posterity."  Conforming 
his  conduct  to  his  convictions,  Jefferson,  in  Virginia, 
and  in  the  Continental  Congress,  with  the  approval  of 
Edmund  Pendleton,  branded  the  slave-trade  as  piracy; 
and  he  fixed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  the 
corner-stone  of  America:  "All  men  are  created  equal, 
with  an  unalienable  right  to  liberty."  On  the  first 


8  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

organization  of  temporary  governments  for  the  conti 
nental  domain,  Jefferson,  but  for  the  default  of  New 
Jersey,  would,  in  1784,  have  consecrated  every  part  of 
that  territory  to  freedom.  In  the  formation  of  the 
national  Constitution,  Virginia,  opposed  by  a  part  of 
New  England,  vainly  struggled  to  abolish  the  slave- 
trade  at  once  and  forever;  and  when  the  ordinance  of 
1787  was  introduced  by  Nathan  Dane  without  the 
clause  prohibiting  slavery,  it  was  through  the  favorable 
disposition  of  Virginia  and  the  South  that  the  clause  of 
Jefferson  was  restored,  and  the  whole  northwestern 
territory — all  the  territory  that  then  belonged  to  the 
nation — was  reserved  for  the  labor  of  freemen. 

The  hope  prevailed  in  Virginia  that  the  abolition  of 
the  slave-trade  would  bring  with  it  the  gradual  aboli 
tion  of  slavery;  but  the  expectation  was  doomed  to 
disappointment.  In  supporting  incipient  measures  for 
emancipation,  Jefferson  encountered  difficulties  greater 
than  he  could  overcome,  and,  after  vain  wrestlings,  the 
words  that  broke  from  him,  "I  tremble  for  my  country 
when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just,  that  His  justice  can 
not  sleep  forever,"  were  words  of  despair.  It  was  the 
desire  of  "Washington's  heart  that  Virginia  should  re 
move  slavery  by  a  public  act;  and  as  the  prospects  of 
a  general  emancipation  grew  more  and  more  dim,  he,  in 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

utter  hopelessness  of  the  action  of  the  State,  did  all 
that  he  could  by  bequeathing  freedom  to  his  own  slaves. 
Good  and  true  men  had,  from  the  days  of  1776,  sug 
gested  the  colonizing  of  the  negro  in  the  home  of  his 
ancestors;  but  the  idea  of  colonization  was  thought  to 
increase  the  difficulty  of  emancipation,  and,  in  spite  of 
strong  support,  while  it  accomplished  .much  good  for 
Africa,  it  proved  impracticable  as  a  remedy  at  home. 
Madison,  who  in  early  life  disliked  slavery  so  much  that 
he  wished  "to  depend  as  little  as  possible  on  the  labor 
of  slaves;"  Madison,  who  held  that  where  slavery  ex 
ists  "the  republican  theory  becomes  fallacious;"  Madison, 
who  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  would  not  consent  to 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  lest  his  countrymen  should  fill 
it  with  slaves;  Madison,  who  said,  "slavery  is  the 
greatest  evil  under  which  the  nation  labors — a  porten 
tous  evil — an  evil,  moral,  political,  and  economical — a 
sad  blot  on  our  free  country" — wrent  mournfully  into 
old  age  with  the  cheerless  words:  "No  satisfactory 
plan  has  yet  been  devised  for  taking  out  the  stain." 

The  men  of  the  Revolution  passed  away;  a  new 
generation  sprang  up,  impatient  that  an  institution  to 
which  they  clung  should  be  condemned  as  inhuman, 
unwise,  and  unjust.  In  the  throes  of  discontent  at  the 
self-reproach  of  their  fathers,  and  blinded  by  the  lustre 


10  LIFE    AND     CHARACTER    OF 

of  wealth  to  be  acquired  by  the  culture  of  a  new 
staple,  they  devised  the  theory  that  slavery,  which  they 
would  not  abolish,  was  not  evil,  but  good.  Thc^  turned 
on  the  friends  of  colonization,  and  confidently  de 
manded:  "Why  take  black  men  from  a  civilized  and 
Christian  country,  where  their  labor  is  a  source  of  im 
mense  gain,  and  a  power  to  control  the  markets  of  the 
world,  and  send  them  to  a  land  of  ignorance,  idolatry, 
and  indolence,  which  was  the  home  of  their  forefathers, 
but  not  theirs  I  Slavery  is  a  blessing.  Were  they  not 
in  their  ancestral  land  naked,  scarcely  lifted  above 
brutes,  ignorant  of  the  course  of  the  sun,  controlled  by 
nature?  And  in  their  new  abode  have  they  not  been 
taught  to  know  the  difference  of  the  seasons,  to  plough, 
and  plant,  and  reap,  to  drive  oxen,  to  tame  the  horse, 
to  exchange  their  scanty  dialect  for  the  richest  of  all 
the  languages  among  men,  and  the  stupid  adoration  of 
follies  for  the  purest  religion?  And  since  slavery  is 
good  for  the  blacks,  it  is  good  for  their  masters,  bringing 
opulence  and  the  opportunity  of  educating  a  race.  The 
slavery  of  the  black  is  good  in  itself;  he  shall  serve  the 
white  man  forever."  And  nature,  which  better  under 
stood  the  quality  of  fleeting  interest  and  passion,  laughed 
as  it  caught  the  echo,  "man"  and  "forever!" 

A  regular  development  of  pretensions  followed  the 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  11 

new  declaration  with  logical  consistency.  Under  the 
old  declaration  every  one  of  the  States  had  retained, 
each  fof  itself,  the  right  of  manumitting  all  slaves  by 
an  ordinary  act  of  legislation;  now  the  power  of  the 
people  over  servitude  through  their  legislatures  was 
curtailed,  and  the  privileged  class  was  swift  in  imposing 
legal  and  constitutional  obstructions  on  the  people 
themselves.  The  power  of  emancipation  was  narrowed 
or  taken  away.  The  slave  might  not  be  disquieted  by 
education.  There  remained  an  unconfessed  conscious 
ness  that  the  system  of  bondage  was  wrong,  and  a  rest 
less  memory  that  it  was  at  variance  with  the  true 
American  tradition ;  its  safety  was  therefore  to  be  se 
cured  by  political  organization.  The  generation  that 
made  the  Constitution  took  care  for  the  predominance 
of  freedom  in  Congress  by  the  ordinance  of  Jefferson; 
the  new  school  aspired  to  secure  for  slavery  an  equality 
of  votes  in  the  Senate,  and,  while  it  hinted  at  an  or 
ganic  act  that  should  concede  to  the  collective  South  a 
veto  power  on  national  legislation,  it  assumed  that 
each  State  separately  had  the  right  to  revise  and  nullify 
laws  of  the  United  States,  according  to  the  discretion 
of  its  judgment. 

The  new  theory  hung  as  a  bias  on  the  foreign  rela 
tions  of  the  country;   there  could  be  no  recognition  of 


12  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

Hayti,  nor  even  of  the  American  colony  of  Liberia ; 
and  the  world  was  given  to  understand  that  the  estab 
lishment  of  free  labor  in  Cuba  would  be  a  reason  for 
wresting  that  island  from  Spain.  Territories  were  an 
nexed — Louisiana,  Florida,  Texas,  half  of  Mexico; 
slavery  must  have  its  share  in  them  all,  and  it  accepted 
for  a  time  a  dividing  line  between  the  unquestioned 
domain  of  free  labor  and  that  in  which  involuntary 
labor  was  to  be  tolerated.  A  few  years  passed  away, 
and  the  new  school,  strong  and  arrogant,  demanded 
and  received  an  apology  for  applying  the  Jefferson 
proviso  to  Oregon. 

The  application  of  that  proviso  was  interrupted  for 
three  administrations,  but  justice  moved  steadily  on 
ward.  In  the  news  that  the  men  of  California  had 
chosen  freedom,  Calhoun  heard  the  knell  of  parting 
slavery,  and  on  his  death-bed  he  counselled  secession. 
Washington,  and  Jefferson,  and  Madison  had  died 
despairing  of  the  abolition  of  slavery ;  Calhoun  died  in 
despair  at  the  growth  of  freedom.  His  system  rushed 
irresistibly  to  its  natural  development.  The  death- 
struggle  for  California  was  followed  by  a  short  truce ; 
but  the  new  school  of  politicians,  who  said  that  slavery 
was  not  evil,  but  good,  soon  sought  to  recover  the 
ground  they  had  lost,  and,  confident  of  securing  Kansas, 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  13 


they  demanded  that  the  established  line  in  the  Territo 
ries  between  freedom  and  slavery  should  be  blotted  out. 
The  country,  believing  in  the  strength  and  enterprise 
and  expansive  energy  of  freedom,  made  answer,  though 
reluctantly :  "  Be  it  so ;  let  there  be  no  strife  between 
brethren;  let  freedom  and  slavery  compete  for  the  Ter 
ritories  on  equal  terms,  in  a  fair  field,  under  an  impar 
tial  administration ;"  and  on  this  theory,  if  on  any,  the 
contest  might  have  been  left  to  the  decision  of  time. 

The  South  started  back  in  appalment  from  its  victory, 
for  it  knew  that  a  fair  competition  foreboded  its  defeat. 
But  where  could  it  now  find  an  ally  to  save  it  from  its 
own  mistake  1  What  I  have  next  to  say  is  spoken  with 
no  emotion  but  regret.  Our  meeting  to-day  is,  as  it 
were,  at  the  grave,  in  the  presence  of  eternity,  and  the 
truth  must  be  uttered  in  soberness  and  sincerity.  In  a 
great  republic,  as  was  observed  more  than  two  thousand 
years  ago,  any  attempt  to  overturn  the  state  owes  its 
strength  to  aid  from  some  branch  of  the  government. 
The  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  without  any 
necessity  or  occasion,  volunteered  to  come  to  the  rescue 
of  the  theory  of  slavery ;  and  from  his  court  there  lay 
no  appeal  but  to  the  bar  of  humanity  and  history. 
Against  the  Constitution,  against  the  memory  of  the 
nation,  against  a  previous  decision,  against  a  series  of 


14  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OP 


enactments,  he  decided  that  the  slave  is  property ;  that 
slave  property  is  entitled  to  no  less  protection  than  any 
other  property;  that  the  Constitution  upholds  it  in  every 
Territory  against  any  act  of  a  local  legislature,  and  even 
against  Congress  itself;  or,  as  the  President  for  that 
term  tersely  promulgated  the  saying,  "Kansas  is  as 
much  a  slave  State  as  South  Carolina  or  Georgia; 
slavery,  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution,  exists  in  every 
Territory."  The  municipal  character  of  slavery  being 
thus  taken  away,  and  slave  property  decreed  to  be 
"  sacred,"  the  authority  of  the  courts  was  invoked  to 
introduce  it  by  the  comity  of  law  into  States  where 
slavery  had  been  abolished,  and  in  one  of  the  courts  of 
the  United  States  a  judge  pronounced  the  African 
slave-trade  legitimate,  and  numerous  and  powerful 
advocates  demanded  its  restoration. 

Moreover,  the  Chief  Justice,  in  his  elaborate  opinion, 
announced  what  had  never  been  heard  from  any  magis 
trate  of  Greece  or  Rome;  what  was  unknown  to  civil 
law,  and  canon  law,  and  feudal  law,  and  common  law, 
and  constitutional  law;  unknown  to  Jay,  to  Eutledge, 
Ellsworth,  and  Marshall — that  there  are  "slave  races." 
The  spirit  of  evil  is  intensely  logical.  Having  the 
authority  of  this  decision,  five  States  swiftly  followed 
the  earlier  example  of  a  sixth,  and  opened  the  way  for 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  15 

reducing  the  free  negro  to  bondage;  the  migrating  free 
negro  became  a  slave  if  he  but  entered  within  the  juris 
diction  of  a  seventh;  and  an  eighth,  from  its  extent,  and 
soil,  and  mineral  resources,  destined  to  incalculable 
greatness,  closed  its  eyes  on  its  coming  prosperity,  and 
enacted,  as  by  Taney's  dictum  it  had  the  right  to  do, 
that  every  free  black  man  who  would  live  within  its 
limits  must  accept  the  condition  of  slavery  for  himself 
and  his  posterity. 

Only  one  step  more  remained  to  be  taken.  Jefferson 
and  the  leading  statesmen  of  his  day  held  fast  to  the 
idea  that  the  enslavement  of  the  African  was  socially, 
morally,  and  politically  wrong.  The  new  school  was 
founded  exactly  upon  the  opposite  idea;  and  they  re 
solved,  first,  to  distract  the  democratic  party,  for  which 
the  Supreme  Court  had  now  furnished  the  means,  and 
then  to  establish  a  new  government,  with  negro  slavery 
for  its  corner-stone,  as  socially,  morally,  and  politically 
right. 

As  the  Presidential  election  drew  on,  one  of  the  great 
traditional  parties  did  not  make  its  appearance;  the 
other  reeled  as  it  sought  to  preserve  its  old  position, 
and  the  candidate  who  most  nearly  represented  its  best 
opinion,  driven  by  patriotic  zeal,  roamed  the  country 
from  end  to  end  to  speak  for  union,  eager,  at  least,  to 


16  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

confront  its  enemies,  yet  not  having  hope  that  it  would 
find  its  deliverance  through  him.  The  storm  rose  to  a 
whirlwind;  who  should  allay  its  wrath?  The  most 
experienced  statesmen  of  the  country  had  failed;  there 
was  no  hope  from  those  who  were  great  after  the  flesh: 
could  relief  come  from  one  whose  wisdom  was  like  the 
wisdom  of  little  children  I 

The  choice  of  America  fell  on  a  man  born  west  of 
the  Alleghanies,  in  the  cabin  of  poor  people  of  Hardin 
county,  Kentucky — ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

His  mother  could  read,  but  not  write;  his  father 
could  do  neither;  but  his  parents  sent  him,  with  an  old 
spelling-book,  to  school,  and  he  learned  in  his  childhood 
to  do  both. 

When  eight  years  old  he  floated  down  the  Ohio  with 
his  father  on  a  raft,  which  bore  the  family  and  all  their 
possessions  to  the  shore  of  Indiana;  and,  child  as  he 
was,  he  gave  help  as  they  toiled  through  dense  forests 
to  the  interior  of  Spencer  county.  There,  in  the  land 
of  free  labor,  he  grew  up  in  a  log-cabin,  with  the 
solemn  solitude  for  his  teacher  in  his  meditative  hours. 
Of  Asiatic  literature  he  knew  only  the  Bible;  of  Greek, 
Latin,  and  mediaeval,  no  more  than  the  translation  of 
^Esop's  Fables;  of  English,  John  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's 
Progress.  The  traditions  of  George  Fox  and  William 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  17 


Perm  passed  to  him  dimly  along  the  lines  of  two  cen 
turies  through  his  ancestors,  who  were  Quakers. 

Otherwise  his  education  was  altogether  American. 
The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  his  compendium 
of  political  wisdom,  the  Life  of  Washington  his  con 
stant  study,  and  something  of  Jefferson  and  Madison 
reached  him  through  Henry  Clay,  whom  he  honored 
from  boyhood.  For  the  rest,  from  day  to  day,  he  lived 
the  life  of  the  American  people,  walked  in  its  light, 
reasoned  with  its  reason,  thought  with  its  power  of 
thought,  felt  the  beatings  of  its  mighty  heart,  and  so 
was  in  every  way  a  child  of  nature,  a  child  of  the  West, 
a  child  of  America. 

At  nineteen,  feeling  impulses  of  ambition  to  get  on 
in  the  world,  he  engaged  himself  to  go  down  the  Mis 
sissippi  in  a  flatboat,  receiving  ten  dollars  a  month  for 
his  wages,  and  afterwards  he  made  the  trip  once  more. 
At  twenty-one  he  drove  his  father's  cattle,  as  the  family 
migrated  to  Illinois,  and  split  rails  to  fence  in  the  new 
homestead  in  the  wild.  At  twenty-three  he  was  a 
captain  of  volunteers  in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He 
kept  a  store.  He  learned  something  of  surveying,  but 
of  English  literature  he  added  to  Bunyan  nothing  but 
Shakspeare's  plays.  At  twenty-five  he  was  elected  to 
the  legislature  of  Illinois,  where  he  served  eight  years. 


18  LIFE    AND    CHARACTEK    OF 

At  twenty-seven  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1837 
he  chose  his  home  at  Springfield,  the  beautiful  centre 
of  the  richest  land  in  the  State.  In  1847  he  was  a 
member  of  the  national  Congress,  w^here  he  voted 
about  forty  times  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  the  Jef 
ferson  proviso.  In  1849  he  sought,  eagerly  but  unsuc 
cessfully,  the  place  of  Commissioner  of  the  Land  Office, 
and  he  refused  an  appointment  that  would  have  trans 
ferred  his  residence  to  Oregon.  In  1854  he  gave  his 
influence  to  elect  from  Illinois,  to  the  American  Senate, 
a  Democrat,  who  would  certainly  do  justice  to  Kansas. 
In  1858,  as  the  rival  of  Douglas,  he  went  before  the 
people  of  the  mighty  Prairie  State,  saying,  "This  Union 
cannot  permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free;  the 
Union  will  not  be  dissolved,  but  the  house  will  cease  to 
be  divided;"  and  now,  in  1861,  with  no  experience 
whatever  as  an  executive  officer,  while  States  were 
madly  flying  from  their  orbit,  and  wise  men  knew  not 
where  to  find  counsel,  this,  descendant  of  Quakers,  this 
pupil  of  Bunyan,  this  offspring  of  the  great  West,  was 
elected  President  of  America. 

He  measured  the  difficulty  of  the  duty  that  devolved 
upon  him,  and  was  resolved  to  fulfil  it.  As  on  the 
eleventh  of  February,  1861,  he  left  Springfield,  which 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  been  his  happy  home,  to 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  19 

the  crowd  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  whom  he  was 
never  more  to  meet,  he  spoke  a  solemn  farewell :  "  I 
know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see  you  again.  A  duty  has 
devolved  upon  me,  greater  than  that  which  has  devolved 
upon  any  other  man  since  Washington.  He  never 
would  have  succeeded,  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine 
Providence,  upon  which  he  at  all  times  relied.  On  the 
same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance,  Pray  that 
I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance,  without  which  I 
cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is  certain.'* 
To  the  men  of  Indiana  he  said :  "  I  am  but  an  acci 
dental,  temporary  instrument;  it  is  your  business  to 
rise  up  and  preserve  the  Union  and  liberty."  At  the 
capital  of  Ohio  he  said :  "  Without  a  name,  without  a 
reason  why  I  should  have  a  name,  there  has  fallen  upon 
me  a  task  su£h  as  did  not  rest  even  upon  the  Father  of 
his  country."  At  various  places  in  New  York,  espe 
cially  at  Albany,  before  the  legislature,  which  tendered 
him  the  united  support  of  the  great  Empire  State,  he 
said :  "  While  I  hold  myself  the  humblest  of  all  the 
individuals  who  have  ever  been  elevated  to  the  Presi 
dency,  I  have  a  more  difficult  task  to  perform  than  any 
of  them.  I  bring  a  true  heart  to  the  work.  I  must 
rely  upon  the  people  of  the  whole  country  for  support, 
and  with  their  sustaining  aid  even  I,  humble  as  I  am, 


20  LIFE    AND     CHARACTER    OF 

cannot  fail  to  carry  the  ship  of  state  safely  through  the 
storm."  To  the  assembly  of  New  Jersey,  at  Trenton, 
he  explained :  "  I  shall  take  the  ground  I  deem  most 
just  to  the  North,  the  East,  the  West,  the  South,  and  the 
whole  country,  in  good  temper,  certainly  with  no 
malice  to  any  section.  I  am  devoted  to  peace,  but  it 
may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down  firmly."  In  the 
old  Independence  Hall,  of  Philadelphia,  he  said :  "  I 
have  never  had  a  feeling  politically  that  did  not  spring 
from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the 
people  of  this  country,  but  to  the  world  in  all  future 
time.  If  the  country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving 
up  that  principle,  I  would  rather  be  assassinated  on  the 
spot  than  surrender  it.  I  have  said  nothing  but  what 
I  am  willing  to  live  and  die  by." 

Travelling  in  the  dead  of  night  to  escape  assas 
sination,  LINCOLN  arrived  at  Washington  nine  days 
before  his  inauguration.  The  outgoing  President,  at 
the  opening  of  the  session  of  Congress,  had  still  kept  as 
the  majority  of  his  advisers  men  engaged  in  treason; 
had  declared  that  in  case  of  even  an  "imaginary"  appre 
hension  of  danger  from  notions  of  freedom  among  the 
slaves,  "disunion  would  become  inevitable."  LINCOLN 
and  others  had  questioned  the  opinion  of  Taney;  such 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  21 

impugning  he  ascribed  to  the  "factious  temper  of  the 
times."  The  favorite  doctrine  of  the  majority  of  the 
Democratic  party  on  the  power  of  a  territorial  legisla 
ture  over  slavery  he  condemned  as  an  attack  on  "the 
sacred  rights  of  property."  The  State  legislatures,  he 
insisted,  must  repeal  what  he  called  "  their  unconstitu 
tional  and  obnoxious  enactments,"  and  which,  if  such, 
were  "null  and  void,"  or  "it  would  be  impossible  for 
any  human  power  to  save  the  Union."  Nay !  if  these 
unimportant  acts  were  not  repealed,  "the  injured  States 
would  be  justified  in  revolutionary  resistance  to  the 
government  of  the  Union."  He  maintained  that  no 
State  might  secede  at  its  sovereign  will  and  pleasure; 
that  the  Union  was  meant  for  perpetuity,  and  that  Con 
gress  might  attempt  to  preserve  it,  but  only  by  concilia 
tion  ;  that  "the  sword  was  not  placed  in  their  hands  to 
preserve  it  by  force;"  that  "the  last  desperate  remedy 
of  a  despairing  people"  would  be  "an  explanatory 
amendment  recognising  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States."  The  American  Union 
he  called  "a  confederacy"  of  States,  and  he  thought  it 
a  duty  to  make  the  appeal  for  the  amendment  "before 
any  of  these  States  should  separate  themselves  from 
the  Union."  The  views  of  the  Lieutenant  General, 
containing  some  patriotic  advice,  "conceded  the  right 


22  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

of  secession,"  pronounced  a  quadruple  rupture  of  the 
Union  "a  smaller  evil  than  the  reuniting  of  the  frag 
ments  by  the  sword,"  and  "eschewed  the  idea  of  in 
vading  a  seceded  State."  After  changes  in  the  Cabinet^ 
the  President  informed  Congress  that  "matters  were 
still  worse;"  that  "the  South  suffered  serious  grievances," 
which  should  be  redressed  "in  peace."  The  day  after 
this  message  the  flag  of  the  Union  was  fired  upon  from 
Fort  Morris,  and  the  insult  was  not  revenged  or  noticed. 
Senators  in  Congress  telegraphed  to  their  constituents 
to  seize  the  national  forts,  and  they  were  not  arrested. 
The  finances  of  the  country  were  grievously  embar 
rassed.  Its  little  army  was  not  within  reach;  the  part 
of  it  in  Texas,  with  all  its  stores,  was  made  over  by  its 
commander  to  rebels.  One  State  after  another  voted 
in  convention  to  secede.  A  peace  congress,  so  called, 
met  at  the  request  of  Virginia,  to  concert  the  terms  of 
a  capitulation  which  should  secure  permission  for  the 
continuance  of  the  Union.  Congress,  in  both  branches, 
sought  to  devise  conciliatory  expedients;  the  Territories 
of  the  country  were  organized  in  a  manner  not  to  con 
flict  with  any  pretensions  of  the  South,  or  any  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court;  and,  nevertheless,  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  rebellion  formed  at  Montgomery  a 
provisional  government,  and  pursued  their  relentless 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  23 


purpose  with  such  success  that  the  Lieutenant  General 
feared  the  city  of  Washington  might  find  itself  "in 
cluded  in  a  foreign  country,"  and  proposed,  among  the 
options  for  the  consideration  of  LINCOLN,  to  bid  the 
wayward  States  "depart  in  peace."  The  great  republic 
appeared  to  have  its  emblem  in  the  vast  unfinished 
Capitol,  at  that  moment  surrounded  by  masses  of  stone 
and  prostrate  columns  never  yet  lifted  into  their  places, 
seemingly  the  monument  of  high  but  delusive  aspira 
tions,  the  confused  wreck  of  inchoate  magnificence, 
sadder  than  any  ruin  of  Egyptian  Thebes  or  Athens. 
The  fourth  of  March  came.  With  instinctive  wis 
dom  the  new  President,  speaking  to  the  people  on 
taking  the  oath  of  office,  put  aside  every  question  that 
divided  the  country,  and  gained  a  right  to  universal 
support  by  planting  himself  on  the  single  idea  of 
Union.  The  Union  he  declared  to  be  unbroken  and 
perpetual,  and  he  announced  his  determination  to  fulfil 
"  the  simple  duty  of  taking  care  that  the  laws  be  faith 
fully  executed  in  all  the  States."  Seven  days  later,  the 
convention  of  Confederate  States  unanimously  adopted 
a  constitution  of  their  own,  and  the  new  government 
was  authoritatively  announced  to  be  founded  on  the 
idea  that  the  negro  race  is  a  slave  race;  that  slavery  is 
its  natural  and  normal  condition.  The  issue  was  made 


24  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

up,  whether  the  great  republic  was  to  maintain  its 
providential  place  in  the  history  of  mankind,  or  a  rebel 
lion  founded  on  negro  slavery  gain  a  recognition  of  its 
principle  throughout  the  civilized  world.  To  the  dis- 
aifected  LINCOLN  had  said,  "  You  can  have  no  conflict 
without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors."  To  fire  the 
passions  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  people,  the  con 
federate  government  chose  to  become  aggressors,  and, 
on  the  morning  of  the  twelfth  of  April,  began  the  bom 
bardment  of  Fort  Sumter,  and  compelled  its  evacuation. 
It  is  the  glory  of  the  late  President  that  he  had  per 
fect  faith  in  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union.  Supported 
in  advance  by  Douglas,  who  spoke  as  with  the  voice  of 
a  million,  he  instantly  called  a  meeting  of  Congress, 
and  summoned  the  people  to  come  up  and  repossess  the 
forts,  places,  and  property  which  had  been  seized  from 
the  Union.  The  men  of  the  north  were  trained  in 
schools;  industrious  and  frugal;  many  of  them  delicately 
bred,  their  minds  teeming  with  ideas  and  fertile  in 
plans  of  enterprise ;  given  to  the  culture  of  the  arts ; 
eager  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  yet  employing  wealth 
less  for  ostentation  than  for  developing  the  resources  of 
their  country ;  seeking  happiness  in  the  calm  of  domestic 
life;  and  such  lovers  of  peace,  that  for  generations  they 
had  been  reputed  unwarlike.  Now,  at  the  cry  of  their 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  25 

country  in  its  distress,  they  rose  up  with  unappeasable 
patriotism ;  not  hirelings — the  purest  and  of  the  best 
blood  in  the  land.  Sons  of  a  pious  ancestry,  with  a 
clear  perception  of  duty,  unclouded  faith  and  fixed 
resolve  to  succeed,  they  thronged  around  the  President, 
to  support  the  wronged,  the  beautiful  flag  of  the  nation. 
The  halls  of  theological  seminaries  sent  forth  their 
young  men,  whose  lips  were  touched  with  eloquence, 
whose  hearts  kindled  with  devotion,  to  serve  in  the 
ranks,  and  make  their  way  to  command  only  as  they 
learned  the  art  of  war.  Striplings  in  the  colleges,  as 
well  the  most  gentle  and  the  most  studious,  those  of 
sweetest  temper  and  loveliest  character  and  brightest 
genius,  passed  from  their  classes  to  the  camp.  The 
lumbermen  from  the  forests,  the  mechanics  from  their 
benches,  where  they  had  been  trained,  by  the  exercise 
of  political  rights,  to  share  the  life  and  hope  of  the 
republic,  to  feel  their  responsibility  to  their  forefathers, 
their  posterity  and  mankind,  went  to  the  front,  resolved 
that  their  dignity,  as  a  constituent  part  of  this  republic, 
should  not  be  impaired.  Farmers  and  sons  of  farmers 
left  the  land  but  half  ploughed,  the  grain  but  half 
planted,  and,  taking  up  the  musket,  learned  to  face 
without  fear  the  presence  of  peril  and  the  coining  of 
death  in  the  shocks  of  war,  while  their  hearts  were 


26  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

still  attracted  to  their  herds  and  fields,  and  all  the 
tender  affections  of  home.  Whatever  there  was  of 
truth  and  faith  and  public  love  in  the  common  heart, 
broke  out  with  one  expression.  The  mighty  winds 
blew  from  every  quarter,  to  fan  the  flame  of  the  sacred 
arid  unquenchable  fire. 

For  a  time  the  wrar  \vas  thought  to  be  confined  to 
our  own  domestic  affairs,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that  it 
involved  the  destinies  of  mankind;  its  principles  and 
causes  shook  the  politics  of  Europe  to  the  centre,  and 
from  Lisbon  to  Pekin  divided  the  governments  of  the 
world. 

There  was  a  kingdom  whose  people  had  in  an  emi 
nent  degree  attained  to  freedom  of  industry  and  the 
security  of  person  and  property.  Its  middle  class  rose 
to  greatness.  Out  of  that  class  sprung  the  noblest 
poets  and  philosophers,  whose  words  built  up  the 
intellect  of  its  people;  skilful  navigators,  to  find  out  for 
its  merchants  the  many  paths  of  the  oceans;  discoverers 
in  natural  science,  whose  inventions  guided  its  industry 
to  wealth,  till  it  equalled  any  nation  of  the  world  in 
letters,  and  excelled  all  in  trade  and  commerce.  But  its 
government  was  become  a  government  of  land,  and  not 
of  men;  every  blade  of  grass  was  represented,  but  only 
a  small  minority  of  the  people.  In  the  transition  from 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  27 


the  feudal  forms  the  heads  of  the  social  organization 
freed  themselves  from  the  military  services  which 
were  the  conditions  of  their  tenure,  and,  throwing  the 
burden  on  the  industrial  classes,  kept  all  the  soil  to 
themselves.  Vast  estates  that  had  been  managed  by 
monasteries  as  endowments  for  religion  and  charity 
were  impropriated  to  swell  the  wealth  of  courtiers  and 
favorites;  and  the  commons,  where  the  poor  man  once 
had  his  right  of  pasture,  were  taken  away,  and,  under 
forms  of  law,  enclosed  distributively  within  the  domains 
of  the  adjacent  landholders.  Although  no  law  forbade 
any  inhabitant  from  purchasing  land,  the  costliness  of 
the  transfer  constituted  a  prohibition;  so  that  it  was  the 
rule  of  the  country  that  the  plough  should  not  be  in  the 
hands  of  its  owner.  The  church  was  rested  on  a  con 
tradiction;  claiming  to  be  an  embodiment  of  absolute 
truth,  it  was  a  creature  of  the  statute-book. 

The  progress  of  time  increased  the  terrible  contrast 
between  wealth  and  poverty.  In  their  years  of  strength 
the  laboring  people,  cut  off  from  all  share  in  governing 
the  state,  derived  a  scant  support  from  the  severest  toil, 
and  had  no  hope  for  old  age  but  in  public  charity  or 
death.  A  grasping  ambition  had  dotted  the  world  with 
military  posts,  kept  watch  over  our  borders  on  the  north 
east,  at  the  Bermudas,  in  the  West  Indies,  appropriated 


28  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 


the  gates  of  the  Pacific,  of  the  Southern  and  of  the 
Indian  ocean,  hovered  on  our  northwest  at  Vancouver, 
held  the  whole  of  the  newest  continent,  and  the  en 
trances  to  the  old  Mediterranean  and  Red  Sea,  and 
garrisoned  forts  all  the  way  from  Madras  to  China. 
That  aristocracy  had  gazed  with  terror  on  the  growth 
of  a  commonwealth  where  freeholders  existed  by  the 
million,  and  religion  was  not  in  bondage  to  the  state, 
and  now  they  could  not  repress  their  joy  at  its  perils. 
They  had  not  one  word  of  sympathy  for  the  kind- 
hearted  poor  man's  son  whom  America  had  chosen  for 
her  chief;  they  jeered  at  his  large  hands,  and  long 
feet,  and  ungainly  stature;  and  the  British  secretary  of 
state  for  foreign  affairs  made  haste  to  send  word  through 
the  palaces  of  Europe  that  the  great  republic  was  in 
its  agony;  that  the  republic  was  no  more;  that  a  head 
stone  was  all  that  remained  due  by  the  law  of  nations 
to  "the  late  Union."  But  it  is  written,  "Let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead;"  they  may  not  bury  the  living.  Let 
the  dead  bury  their  dead;  let  a  bill  of  reform  remove 
the  worn-out  government  of  a  class,  and  infuse  new  life 
into  the  British  constitution  by  confiding  rightful  power 
to  the  people. 

But  while  the  vitality  of  America  is  indestructible, 
the  British  government  hurried  to  do  what  never  before 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  29 

had  been  clone  by  Christian  powers;  what  was  in  direct 
conflict  with  its  own  exposition  of  public  law  in  the 
time  of  our  struggle  for  independence.  Though  the 
insurgent  States  had  not  a  ship  in  an  open  harbor,  it 
invested  them  with  all  the  rights  of  a  belligerent,  even 
on  the  ocean;  and  this,  too,  when  the  rebellion  was 
not  only  directed  against  the  gentlest  and  most  bene 
ficent  government  on  earth,  without  a  shadow  of  justi 
fiable  cause,  but  when  the  rebellion  was  directed 
against  human  nature  itself  for  the  perpetual  enslave 
ment  of  a  race.  And  the  effect  of  this  recognition  was, 
that  acts  in  themselves  piratical  found  shelter  in  British 
courts  of  law.  The  resources  of  British  capitalists, 
their  workshops,  their  armories,  their  private  arsenals, 
their  ship-yards,  were  in  league  with  the  insurgents,  and 
every  British  harbor  in  the  wide  world  became  a  safe 
port  for  British  ships,  manned  by  British  sailors,  and 
armed  with  British  guns,  to  prey  on  our  peaceful  com 
merce  ;  even  on  our  ships  coming  from  British  ports, 
freighted  with  British  products,  or  that  had  carried 
gifts  of  grain  to  the  English  poor.  The  prime  minis 
ter,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  sustained  by  cheers, 
scoffed  at  the  thought  that  their  laws  could  be  amended 
at  our  request,  so  as  to  preserve  real  neutrality ;  and  to 
remonstrances,  now  owned  to  have  been  just,  their  sec- 


30  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

retary  of  state  answered  that  they  could  not  change 
their  laws  ad  wfinitum. 

The  people  of  America  then  wished,  as  they  always 
have  wished,  as  they  still  wish,  friendly  relations  with 
England,  and  no  man  in  England  or  America  can  desire 
it  more  strongly  than  I.  This  country  has  always 
yearned  for  good  relations  with  England.  Thrice  only 
in  all  its  history  has  that  yearning  been  fairly  met :  in 
the  days  of  Hampden  and  Cromwell,  again  in  the  first 
ministry  of  the  elder  Pitt,  and  once  again  in  the  min 
istry  of  Shelburne.  Not  that  there  have  not  at  all 
times  been  just  men  among  the  peers  of  Britain — like 
Halifax  in  the  days  of  James  the  Second,  or  a  Grran- 
villc,  an  Argyll,  or  a  Houghton  in  ours;  and  we  cannot 
be  indifferent  to  a  country  that  produces  statesmen  like 
Cobden  and  Bright;  but  the  best  bower  anchor  of 
peace  was  the  working  class  of  England,  who  suffered 
most  from  our  civil  war,  but  who,  while  they  broke 
their  diminished  bread  in  sorrow,  always  encouraged  us 
to  persevere. 

The  act  of  recognising  the  rebel  belligerents  was  con 
certed  with  France — France,  so  beloved  in  America,  on 
which  she  had  conferred  the  greatest  benefits  that  one 
people  ever  conferred  on  another;  France,  which  stands 
foremost  on  the  continent  of  Europe  for  the  solidity  of 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  31 


her  culture,  as  well  as  for  the  bravery  and  generous 
impulses  of  her  sons ;  France,  which  for  centuries  had 
been  moving  steadily  in  her  own  way  towards  intellec 
tual  and  political  freedom.  The  policy  regarding  fur 
ther  colonization  of  America  by  European  powers, 
known  commonly  as  the  doctrine  of  Monroe,  had  its 
origin  in  France,  and  if  it  takes  any  man's  name, 
should  bear  the  name  of  Turgot.  It  was  adopted  by 
Louis  the  Sixteenth,  in  the  cabinet  of  which  Vergennes 
was  the  most  important  member.  It  is  emphatically 
the  policy  of  France,  to  which,  with  transient  devia 
tions,  the  Bourbons,  the  First  Napoleon,  the  House  of 
Orleans  have  adhered. 

The  late  President  was  perpetually  harassed  by  ru 
mors  that  the  Emperor  Napoleon  the  Third  desired 
formally  to  recognise  the  States  in  rebellion  as  an  inde 
pendent  power,  and  that  England  held  him  back  by 
her  reluctance,  or  France  by  her  traditions  of  freedom, 
or  he  himself  by  his  own  better  judgment  and  clear 
perception  of  events.  But  the  republic  of  Mexico,  on 
our  borders,  was,  like  ourselves,  distracted  by  a  rebel 
lion,  and  from  a  similar  cause.  The  monarchy  of 
England  had  fastened  upon  us  slavery  which  did  not 
disappear  with  independence;  in  like  manner,  the 
ecclesiastical  policy  established  by  the  Spanish  council 


32  LIFE    AND     CHARACTER    OF 


of  the  Indies,  in  the  days  of  Charles  the  Fifth  and 
Philip  the  Second,  retained  its  vigor  in  the  Mexican 
republic.  The  fifty  years  of  civil  war  under  which  she 
had  languished  was  due  to  the  bigoted  system  which 
was  the  legacy  of  monarchy,  just  as  here  the  inherit 
ance  of  slavery  kept  alive  political  strife,  and  culminated 
in  civil  war.  As  with  us  there  could  be  no  quiet  but 
through  the  end  of  slavery,  so  in  Mexico  there  could  be 
no  prosperity  until  the  crushing  tyranny  of  intolerance 
should  cease.  The  party  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States  sent  their  emissaries  to  Europe  to  solicit  aid ; 
and  so  did  the  party  of  the  church  in  Mexico,  as 
organized  by  the  old  Spanish  council  of  the  Indies,  but 
with  a  different  result.  Just  as  the  Kepublican  party 
had  made  an  end  of  the  rebellion,  and  was  establishing 
the  best  government  ever  known  in  that  region,  and 
giving  promise  to  the  nation  of  order,  peace,  and  pros 
perity,  word  was  brought  us,  in  the  moment  of  our 
deepest  affliction,  that  the  French  Emperor,  moved  by 
a  desire  to  erect  in  North  America  a  buttress  for  im 
perialism,  would  transform  the  republic  of  Mexico  into 
a  secundo-geniture  for  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  America 
might  complain;  she  could  not  then  interpose,  and  de 
lay  seemed  justifiable.  It  was  seen  that  Mexico  could 
not,  with  all  its  wealth  of  land,  compete  in  cereal  pro- 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  33 


ducts  with  our  northwest,  nor  in  tropical  products  with 
Cuba,  nor  could  it,  under  a  disputed  dynasty,  attract 
capital,  or  create  public  works,  or  develop  mines,  or 
borrow  money;  so  that  the  imperial  system  of  Mexico, 
which  was  forced  at  once  to  recognise  the  wisdom  of 
the  policy  of  the  republic  by  adopting  it,  could  prove 
only  an  unr enumerating  drain  on  the  French  treasury 
for  the  support  of  an  Austrian  adventurer. 

Meantime  a  new  series  of  momentous  questions 
grows  up,  and  forces  itself  on  the  consideration  of 
the  thoughtful.  Republicanism  has  learned  how  to  in 
troduce  into  its  constitution  every  element  of  order,  as 
well  as  every  element  of  freedom;  but  thus  far  the 
continuity  of  its  government  has  seemed  to  depend  on 
the  continuity  of  elections.  It  is  now  to  be  considered 
how  perpetuity  is  to  be  secured  against  foreign  occupa 
tion.  The  successor  of  Charles  the  First  of  England 
dated  his  reign  from  the  death  of  his  father;  the  Bour 
bons,  coming  back  after  a  long  series  of  revolutions, 
claimed  that  the  Louis  who  became  king  was  the  eigh 
teenth  of  that  name.  The  present  Emperor  of  the 
French,  disdaining  a  title  from  election  alone,  calls  him 
self  Napoleon  the  Third.  Shall  a  republic  have  less 
power  of  continuance  when  invading  armies  prevent  a 
peaceful  resort  to  the  ballot-box  ?  What  force  shall  it 


34  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

attach  to  intervening  legislation  ?  What  validity  to 
debts  contracted  for  its  overthrow  1  These  momentous 
questions  are,  by  the  invasion  of  Mexico,  thrown  up  for 
solution.  A  free  state  once  truly  constituted  should  be 
as  undying  as  its  people:  the  republic  of  Mexico  must 
rise  again. 

It  was  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Mexico  that  in 
volved  the  Pope  of  Rome  in  our  difficulties  so  far  that 
he  alone  among  sovereigns  recognised  the  chief  of  the 
Confederate  States  as  a  president,  and  his  supporters 
as  a  people;  and  in  letters  to  two  great  prelates  of  the 
Catholic  church  in  the  United  States  gave  counsels  for 
peace  at  a  time  when  peace  meant  the  victory  of  se 
cession.  Yet  events  move  as  they  are  ordered.  The 
blessing  of  the  Pope  at  Rome  on  the  head  of  Duke 
Maximilian  could  not  revive  in  the  nineteenth  century 
the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  sixteenth,  and  the  result 
is  only  a  new  proof  that  there  can  be  no  prosperity  in 
the  state  without  religious  freedom. 

When  it  came  home  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
Americans  that  the  war  which  they  were  waging  was 
a  war  for  the  liberty  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world, 
for  freedom  itself,  they  thanked  God  for  giving  them 
strength  to  endure  the  seventy  of  the  trial  to  which 
He  put  their  sincerity,  and  nerved  themselves  for  their 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  35 

duty  with  an  inexorable  will.  The  President  was  led 
along  by  the  greatness  of  their  self-sacrificing  example; 
and  as  a  child,  in  a  dark  night,  on  a  rugged  way,  catches 
hold  of  the  hand  of  its  father  for  guidance  and  sup 
port,  he  clung  fast  to  the  hand  of  the  people,  and 
moved  calmly  through  the  gloom.  While  the  states 
manship  of  Europe  was  mocking  at  the  hopeless 
vanity  of  their  efforts,  they  put  forth  such  miracles  of 
energy  as  the  history  of  the  world  had  never  known. 
The  contributions  to  the  popular  loans  amounted  in 
four  years  to  twenty-seven  and  a  half  hundred  millions 
of  dollars ;  the  revenue  of  the  country  from  taxation 
was  increased  seven-fold.  The  navy  of  the  United 
States,  drawing  into  the  public  service  the  willing  mili 
tia  of  the  seas,  doubled  its  tonnage  in  eight  months,  and 
established  an  actual  blockade  from  Cape  Hatteras  to 
the  Rio  Grande ;  in  the  course  of  the  war  it  was  in 
creased  five-fold  in  men  and  in  tonnage,  while  the 
inventive  genius  of  the  country  devised  more  effective 
kinds  of  ordnance,  and  new  forms  of  naval  architecture 
in  wood  and  iron.  There  went  into  the  field,  for  various 
terms  of  enlistment,  about  two  million  men,  and  in 
March  last  the  men  in  the  army  exceeded  a  million  : 
that  is  to  say,  nine  of  every  twenty  able-bodied  men  in 
the  free  Territories  and  States  took  some  part  in  the 


36  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

war ;  and  at  one  time  every  fifth  of  their  able-bodied 
men  was  in  service.  In  one  single  month  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  thousand  men  were  recruited  into  service. 
Once,  within  four  weeks,  Ohio  organized  and  placed  in 
the  field  forty-two  regiments  of  infantry — nearly  thirty- 
six  thousand  men ;  and  Ohio  was  like  other  States  in 
the  east  and  in  the  west.  The  well-mounted  cavalry 
numbered  eighty-four  thousand ;  of  horses  and  mules 
there  were  bought,  from  first  to  last,  two-thirds  of  a 
million.  In  the  movements  of  troops  science  came  in 
aid  of  patriotism,  so  that,  to  choose  a  single  instance 
out  of  many,  an  army  twenty -three  thousand  strong, 
with  its  artillery,  trains,  baggage,  and  animals,  were 
moved  by  rail  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Tennessee, 
twelve  hundred  miles,  in  seven  days.  On  the  long 
marches,  wonders  of  military  construction  bridged  the 
rivers,  and  wherever  an  army  halted,  ample  supplies 
awaited  them  at  their  ever-changing  base.  The  vile 
thought  that  life  is  the  greatest  of  blessings  did  not 
rise  up.  In  six  hundred  and  twenty-five  battles  and 
severe  skirmishes  blood  flowed  like  w^ater.  It  streamed 
over  the  grassy  plains ;  it  stained  the  rocks ;  the  under 
growth  of  the  forests  was  red  with  it ;  and  the  armies 
marched  on  with  majestic  courage  from  one  conflict  to 
another,  knowing  that  they  were  fighting  for  God  and 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  37 


liberty.  The  organization  of  the  medical  department 
met  its  infinitely  multiplied  duties  with  exactness  and 
despatch.  At  the  news  of  a  battle,  the  best  surgeons 
of  our  cities  hastened  to  the  field,  to  offer  the  untiring 
aid  of  the  greatest  experience  and  skill.  The  gentlest 
and  most  refined  of  women  left  homes  of  luxury  and 
ease  to  build  hospital  tents  near  the  armies,  and  serve 
as  nurses  to  the  sick  and  dying.  Beside  the  large 
supply  of  religious  teachers  by  the  public,  the  congrega 
tions  spared  to  their  brothers  in  the  field  the  ablest 
ministers.  The  Christian  Commission,  which  expended 
more  than  six  and  a  quarter  millions,  sent  nearly  five 
thousand  clergymen,  chosen  out  of  the  best,  to  keep 
unsoiled  the  religious  character  of  the  men,  and  made 
gifts  of  clothes  and  food  and  medicine.  The  organiza 
tion  of  private  charity  assumed  unheard-of  dimensions. 
The  Sanitary  Commission,  which  had  seven  thousand 
societies,  distributed,  under  the  direction  of  an  unpaid 
board,  spontaneous  contributions  to  the  amount  of  fif 
teen  millions  in  supplies  or  money — a  million  and  a 
half  in  money  from  California  alone — and  dotted  the 
scene  of  war,  from  Paducah  to  Port  Royal,  from  Belle 
Plain,  Virginia,  to  Brownsville,  Texas,  with  homes  and 
lodges. 

The  country  had  for  its  allies  the  river  Mississippi, 


38  LIFE    AND    CHARACTEE    OF 


which  would  not  be  divided,  and  the  range  of  moun 
tains  which  carried  the  stronghold  of  the  free  through 
Western  Virginia  and  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  to  the 
highlands  of  Alabama.  But  it  invoked  the  still  higher 
power  of  immortal  justice.  In  ancient  Greece,  where 
servitude  was  the  universal  custom,  it  was  held  that  if 
a  child  were  to  strike  its  parent,  the  slave  should  defend 
the  parent,  and  by  that  act  recover  his  freedom.  After 
vain  resistance,  LINCOLN,  who  had  tried  to  solve  the 
question  by  gradual  emancipation,  by  colonization,  and 
by  compensation,  at  last  saw  that  slavery  must  be  abol 
ished,  or  the  republic  must  die ;  and  on  the  first  day  of 
January,  1863,  he  wrote  liberty  on  the  banners  of  the 
armies.  When  this  proclamation,  which  struck  the 
fetters  from  three  millions  of  slaves,  reached  Europe, 
Lord  Russell,  a  countryman  of  Milton  and  Wilberforce, 
eagerly  put  himself  forward  to  speak  of  it  in  the  name 
of  mankind,  saying:  "It  is  of  a  very  strange  nature;" 
"  a  measure  of  war  of  a  very  questionable  kind ;"  an 
act  "of  vengeance  on  the  slave  owner,"  that  does  no 
more  than  "profess  to  emancipate  slaves  where  the 
United  States  authorities  cannot  make  emancipation  a 
reality."  Now  there  was  no  part  of  the  country  em 
braced  in  the  proclamation  where  the  United  States 
could  not  and  did  not  make  emancipation  a  reality. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  39 


Those  who  saw  LINCOLN  most  frequently  had  never 
before  heard  him  speak  with  bitterness  of  any  human 
being,  but  he  did  not  conceal  how  keenly  he  felt 
that  he  had  been  wronged  by  Lord  Russell.  And 
he  wrote,  in  reply  to  other  cavils  :  "  The  emancipa 
tion  policy  and  the  use  of  colored  troops  were  the 
greatest  blows  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion;  the  job  was  a 
great  national  one,  and  let  none  be  slighted  who  bore 
an  honorable  part  in  it.  I  hope  peace  will  come  soon, 
and  come  to  stay ;  then  will  there  be  some  black  men 
who  can  remember  that  they  have  helped  mankind  to 
this  great  consummation." 

The  proclamation  accomplished  its  end,  for,  during 
the  war,  our  armies  came  into  military  possession  of 
every  State  in  rebellion.  Then,  too,  was  called  forth 
the  new  power  that  comes  from  the  simultaneous  diffu 
sion  of  thought  and  feeling  among  the  nations  of 
mankind.  The  mysterious  sympathy  of  the  millions 
throughout  the  world  was  given  spontaneously.  The 
best  writers  of  Europe  waked  the  conscience  of  the 
thoughtful,  till  the  intelligent  moral  sentiment  of  the 
Old  World  was  drawn  to  the  side  of  the  unlettered 
statesman  of  the  West.  Eussia,  whose  emperor  had 
just  accomplished  one  of  the  grandest  acts  in  the  course 
of  time,  by  raising  twenty  millions  of  bondmen  into 


40  LIFE    AND     CHARACTER    OF 

freeholders,  and  thus  assuring  the  growth  and  culture 
of  a  Russian  people,  remained  our  unwavering  friend. 
From  the  oldest  abode  of  civilization,  which  gave  the 
first  example  of  an  imperial  government  with  equality 
among  the  people,  Prince  Kung,  the  secretary  of  state 
for  foreign  affairs,  remembered  the  saying  of  Confucius, 
that  we  should  not  do  to  others  what  wre  would  not 
that  others  should  do  to  us,  and,  in  the  name  of  his 
emperor,  read  a  lesson  to  European  diplomatists  by 
closing  the  ports  of  China  against  the  war-ships  and 
privateers  of  "  the  seditious." 

The  war  continued,  with  all  the  peoples  of  the  world 
for  anxious  spectators.  Its  cares  weighed  heavily  on 
LINCOLN,  and  his  face  was  ploughed  with  the  furrows 
of  thought  and  sadness.  With  malice  towards  none, 
free  from  the  spirit  of  revenge,  victory  made  him 
importunate  for  peace,  and  his  enemies  never  doubted 
his  word,  or  despaired  of  his  abounding  clemency.  He 
longed  to  utter  pardon  as  the  word  for  all,  but  not 
unless  the  freedom  of  the  negro  should  be  assured. 
The  grand  battles  of  Fort  Donelson,  Chattanooga, 
Malvern  Hill,  Antietam,  Gettysburg,  the  Wilderness  of 
Virginia,  Winchester,  Nashville,  the  capture  of  New 
Orleans.  Vicksburg,  Mobile,  Fort  Fisher,  the  march 
from  Atlanta,  and  the  capture  of  Savannah  and  Charles- 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  41 

ton,  all  foretold  the  issue.  Still  more,  the  self-regen 
eration  of  Missouri,  the  heart  of  the  continent;  of 
Maryland,  whose  sons  never  heard  the  midnight  bells 
chime  so  sweetly  as  when  they  rang  out  to  earth  and 
heaven  that,  by  the  voice  of  her  own  people,  she  took 
her  place  among  the  free ;  of  Tennessee,  which  passed 
through  fire  and  blood,  through  sorrows  and  the 
shadow  of  death,  to  work  out  her  own  deliverance,  and 
by  the  faithfulness  of  her  own  sons  to  renew  her  youth 
like  the  eagle — proved  that  victory  was  deserved,  and 
would  be  worth  all  that  it  cost.  If  words  of  mercy, 
uttered  as  they  \vere  by  LINCOLN  on  the  waters  of 
Virginia,  were  defiantly  repelled,  the  armies  of  the 
country,  moving  with  one  will,  went  as  the  arrow  to  its 
mark,  and,  without  a  feeling  of  revenge,  struck  a  death 
blow  at  rebellion. 

Where,  in  the  history  of  nations,  had  a  Chief  Magis 
trate  possessed  more  sources  of  consolation  and  joy 
than  LINCOLN  I  His  countrymen  had  shown  their  love 
by  choosing  him  to  a  second  term  of  service.  The 
raging  war  that  had  divided  the  country  had  lulled,  and 
private  grief  was  hushed  by  the  grandeur  of  the  result. 
The  nation  had  its  new  birth  of  freedom,  soon  to  be 
secured  forever  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution. 
His  persistent  gentleness  had  conquered  for  him  a  kind- 


42  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

Her  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  South.  His  scoffers 
among  the  grandees  of  Europe  began  to  do  him  honor. 
The  laboring  classes  everywhere  saw  in  his  advance 
ment  their  own.  All  peoples  sent  him  their  benedic 
tions.  And  at  this  moment  of  the  height  of  his  fame, 
to  which  his  humility  and  modesty  added  charms,  he 
fell  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin,  and  the  only  triumph 
awarded  him  was  the  march  to  the  grave. 

This  is  no  time  to  say  that  human  glory  is  but  dust 
and  ashes;  that  we  mortals  are  no  more  than  shadows 
in  pursuit  of  shadows.  How  mean  a  thing  were  man 
if  there  were  not  that  within  him  which  is  higher  than, 
himself;  if  he  could  not  master  the  illusions  of  sense, 
and  discern  the  connexions  of  events  by  a  superior 
light  which  comes  from  God!  He  so  shares  the  divine 
impulses  that  he  has  power  to  subject  interested  passions 
to  love  of  country,  and  personal  ambition  to  the  ennoble 
ment  of  his  kind.  Not  in  vain  has  LINCOLN  lived,  for 
he  has  helped  to  make  this  republic  an  example  of 
justice,  with  no  caste  but  the  caste  -of  humanity.  The 
heroes  who  led  our  armies  and  ships  into  battle  and  fell 
in  the  service — Lyon,  McPherson,  Reynolds,  Sedgwick, 
Wads  worth,  Foote,  Ward,  with  their  compeers — did 
not  die  in  vain;  they  and  the  myriads  of  nameless 
martyrs,  and  he,  the  chief  martyr,  gave  up  their  lives 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  43 

willingly  "that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  assassination  of  LINCOLN,  who  was  so  free  from 
malice,  has,  by  some  mysterious  influence,  struck  the 
country  with  solemn  awe,  and  hushed,  instead  of  excit 
ing,  the  passion  for  revenge.  It  seems  as  if  the  just 
had  died  for  the  unjust.  When  I  think  of  the  friends 
I  have  lost  in  this  war — and  every  one  who  hears  me 
has,  like  myself,  lost  some  of  those  whom  he  most 
loved — there  is  no  consolation  to  be  derived  from 
victims  on  the  scaffold,  or  from  anything  but  the  estab 
lished  union  of  the  regenerated  nation. 

In  his  character  LINCOLN  was  through  and  through 
an  American.  He  is  the  first  native  of  the  region  west 
of  the  Alleghanies  to  attain  to  the  highest  station;  and 
how  happy  it  is  that  the  man  who  was  brought  forward 
as  the  natural  outgrowth  and  first  fruits  of  that  region 
should  have  been  of  unblemished  purity  in  private  life, 
a  good  son,  a  kind  husband,  a  most  affectionate  father, 
and,  as  a  man,  so  gentle  to  all.  As  to  integrity,  Douglas, 
his  rival,  said  of  him:  "Lincoln  is  the  honestest  man  I 
ever  knew." 

The  habits  of  his  mind  were  those  of  meditation  and 
inward  thought,  rather  than  of  action.  He  delighted 
to  express  his  opinions  by  an  apothegm,  illustrate  them 


44  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

by  a  parable,  or  drive  them  home  by  a  story.  He  was 
skilful  in  analysis,  discerned  with  precision  the  central 
idea  on  which  a  question  turned,  and  knew  how  to 
disengage  it  and  present  it  by  itself  in  a  few  homely, 
strong  old  English  words  that  would  be  intelligible  to 
all.  He  excelled  in  logical  statement  more  than  in 
executive  ability.  He  reasoned  clearly,  his  reflective 
judgment  was  good,  and  his  purposes  were  fixed;  but, 
like  the  Hamlet  of  his  only  poet,  his  will  was  tardy  in 
action,  and,  for  this  reason,  and  not  from  humility  or 
tenderness  of  feeling,  he  sometimes  deplored  that  the 
duty  which  devolved  on  him  had  not  fallen  to  the  lot  of 
another. 

LINCOLN  gained  a  name  by  discussing  questions  which, 
of  all  others,  most  easily  lead  to  fanaticism ;  but  he 
was  never  carried  away  by  enthusiastic  zeal,  never 
indulged  in  extravagant  language,  never  hurried  to 
support  extreme  measures,  never  allowed  himself  to  be 
controlled  by  sudden  impulses.  During  the  progress 
of  the  election  at  which  he  was  chosen  President  he 
expressed  no  opinion  that  went  beyond  the  Jefferson 
proviso  of  1784.  Like  Jefferson  and  Lafayette,  he  had 
faith  in  the  intuitions  of  the  people,  and  read  those 
intuitions  with  rare  sagacity.  He  knew  how  to  bide 
time,  and  was  less  apt  to  run  ahead  of  public  thought 


ABRAHAM     LINCOLN.  45 

than  to  lag  behind.  He  never  sought  to  electrify  the 
community  by  taking  an  advanced  position  with  a  ban 
ner  of  opinion,  but  rather  studied  to  move  forward 
compactly,  exposing  no  detachment  in  front  or  rear; 
so  that  the  course  of  his  administration  might  have 
been  explained  as  the  calculating  policy  of  a  shrewd 
and  watchful  politician,  had  there  not  been  seen  behind 
it  a  fixedness  of  principle  which  from  the  first  deter 
mined  his  purpose,  and  grew  more  intense  with  every 
year,  consuming  his  life  by  its  energy.  Yet  his  sensi 
bilities  were  not  acute ;  he  had  no  vividness  of 
imagination  to  picture  to  his  mind  the  horrors  of  the 
battle-field  or  the  sufferings  in  hospitals;  his  conscience 
was  more  tender  than  his  feelings. 

LINCOLN  was  one  of  the  most  unassuming  of  men. 
In  time  of  success,  he  gave  credit  for  it  to  those  whom 
he  employed,  to  the  people,  and  to  the  Providence  of 
God.  He  did  not  know  what  ostentation  is;  when  he 
became  President  he  was  rather  saddened  than  elated, 
and  his  conduct  and  manners  showed  more  than  ever 
his  belief  that  all  men  are  born  equal.  He  was  no 
respecter  of  persons,  and  neither  rank,  nor  reputation, 
nor  services  overawed  him.  In  judging  of  character 
he  failed  in  discrimination,  and  his  appointments  were 
sometimes  bad ;  but  he  readily  deferred  to  public 


46  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 


opinion,  and  in  appointing  the  head  of  the  armies  he 
followed  the  manifest  preference  of  Congress. 

A  good  President  will  secure  unity  to  his  administra 
tion  by  bis  own  supervision  of  the  various  departments. 
LINCOLN,  who  accepted  advice  readily,  was  never  gov 
erned  by  any  member  of  his  cabinet,  and  could  not  be 
moved  from  a  purpose  deliberately  formed;  but  his 
supervision  of  affairs  was  unsteady  and  incomplete,  and 
sometimes,  by  a  sudden  interference  transcending  the 
usual  forms,  he  rather  confused  than  advanced  the  public 
business.  If  he  ever  failed  in  the  scrupulous  regard 
due  to  the  relative  rights  of  Congress,  it  was  so  evidently 
without  design  that  no  conflict  could  ensue,  or  evil 
precedent  be  established.  Truth  he  would  receive  from 
any  one,  but  when  impressed  by  others,  he  did  not  use 
their  opinions  till,  by  reflection,  he  had  made  them 
thoroughly  his  own. 

It  wras  the  nature  of  LINCOLN  to  forgive.  When 
hostilities  ceased,  he,  who  had  always  sent  forth  the  flag 
with  every  one  of  its  stars  in  the  field,  was  eager  to 
receive  back  his  returning  countrymen,  and  meditated 
"some  new  announcement  to  the  South."  The  amend 
ment  of  the  Constitution  abolishing  slavery  had  his 
most  earnest  and  unwearied  support.  During  the  rage 
of  war  we  get  a  glimpse  into  his  soul  from  his  privately 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  47 

suggesting  to  Louisiana,  that  "  in  defining  the  franchise 
some  of  the  colored  people  might  be  let  in,"  sayin"-: 
"They  would  probably  help,  in  some  trying  time  to 
come,  to  keep  the  jewel  of  liberty  in  the  family  of  free 
dom."  In  1857  he  avowed  himself  "not  in  flavor  of" 
what  he  improperly  called  •"  negro  citizenship,"  for  the 
Constitution  discriminates  between  citizens  and  electors. 
Three  days  before  his  death  he  declared  his  preference 
that  "  the  elective  franchise  were  now  conferred  on  the 
very  intelligent  of  the  colored  men,  and  on  those  of 
them  who  served  our  cause  as  soldiers ;"  but  he  wished 
it  done  by  the  States  themselves,  and  he  never  harbored 
the  thought  of  exacting  it  from  a  new  government,  as  a 
condition  of  its  recognition. 

The  last  day  of  his  life  beamed  with  sunshine,  as  he 
sent,  by  the  Speaker  of  this  House,  his  friendly  greet 
ings  to  the  men  of  the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  Pacific 
slope;  as  he  contemplated  the  return  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  soldiers  to  fruitful  industry;  as  he  wel 
comed  in  advance  hundreds  of  thousands  of  emigrants 
from  Europe;  as  his  eye  kindled  with  enthusiasm  at 
the  coming  wealth  of  the  nation.  And  so,  with  these 
thoughts  for  his  country,  he  was  removed  from  the  toils 
and  temptations  of  this  life,  and  was  at  peace. 

Hardly  had  the  late  President  been  consigned  to  the 


48  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF 

grave  when  the  prime  minister  of  England  died,  full 
of  years  and  honors.  Palmerston  traced  his  lineage  to 
the  time  of  the  conqueror;  LINCOLN  went  back  only  to 
his  grandfather.  Palmerston  received  his  education 
from  the  best  scholars  of  Harrow,  Edinburg,  and  Cam 
bridge  ;  LINCOLN'S  early  teachers  were  the  silent  forest, 
the  prairie,  the  river,  and  the  stars.  Palmerston  was  in 
public  life  for  sixty  years;  LINCOLN  for  but  a  tenth  of 
that  time.  Palmerston  \vas  a  skilful  guide  of  an  estab 
lished  aristocracy;  LINCOLN  a  leader,  or  rather  a  com 
panion,  of  the  people.  Palmcrston  was  exclusively  an 
Englishman,  and  made  his  boast  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons  that  the  interest  of  England  was  his  Shibboleth; 
LINCOLN  thought  always  of  mankind,  as  well  as  his  own 
country,  and  served  human  nature  itself.  Palmerston, 
from  his  narrowness  as  an  Englishman,  did  not  endear 
his  country  to  any  one  court  or  to  any  one  nation,  but 
rather  caused  general  uneasiness  and  dislike;  LINCOLN 
left  America  more  beloved  than  ever  by  all  the  peoples 
of  Europe.  Palmerston  was  self-possessed  and  adroit 
in  reconciling  the  conflicting  factions  of  the  aristocracy; 
LINCOLN,  frank  and  ingenuous,  knew  how  to  poise 
himself  on  the  ever-moving  opinions  of  the  masses. 
Palmerston  was  capable  of  insolence  towards  the  weak, 
quick  to  the  sense  of  honor,  not  heedful  of  right; 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  49 


LINCOLN  rejected  counsel  given  only  as  a  matter  of 
policy,  and  was  not  capable  of  being  wilfully  unjust. 
Palmerston,  essentially  superficial,  delighted  in  banter, 
and  knew  how  to  divert  grave  opposition  by  playful 
levity;  LINCOLN  was  a  man  of  infinite  jest  on  his  lips, 
with  saddest  earnestness  at  his  heart.  Palmerston  was 
a  fair  representative  of  the  aristocratic  liberality  of  the 
day,  choosing  for  his  tribunal,  not  the  conscience  of 
humanity,  but  the  House  of  Commons;  LINCOLN  took 
to  heart  the  eternal  truths  of  liberty,  obeyed  them  as 
the  commands  of  Providence,  and  accepted  the  human 
race  as  the  judge  of  his  fidelity.  Palmerston  did 
nothing  that  will  endure;  LINCOLN  finished  a  work 
which  all  time  cannot  overthrow.  Palmerston  is  a 
shining  example  of  the  ablest  of  a  cultivated  aristocracy; 
LINCOLN  is  the  genuine  fruit  of  institutions  where  the 
laboring  man  shares  and  assists  to  form  the  great  ideas 
and  designs  of  his  country.  Palmerston  was  buried  in 
Westminister  Abbey  by  the  order  of  his  Queen,  and 
was  attended  by  the  British  aristocracy  to  his  grave, 
which,  after  a  few  years,  will  hardly  be  noticed  by  the 
side  of  the  graves  of  Fox  and  Chatham;  LINCOLN 
was  followed  by  the  sorrow  of  his  country  across 
the  continent  to  his  resting-place  in  the  heart  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  to  be  remembered  through  all 


50  LIFE    AND     CHARACTER    OF 


time    by  his   countrymen,  and    by  all  the   peoples  of 
the  world. 

As  the  sum  of  all,  the  hand  of  LINCOLN  raised  the 
flag ;  the  American  people  was  the  hero  of  the  war ; 
and,  therefore,  the  result  is  a  new  era  of  republicanism. 
The  disturbances  in  the  country  grew  not  out  of  any 
thing  republican,  but  out  of  slavery,  which  is  a  part  of 
the  system  of  hereditary  wrong ;  and  the  expulsion  of 
this  domestic  anomaly  opens  to  the  renovated  nation  a 
career  of  unthought-of  dignity  and  glory.  Henceforth 
our  country  has  a  moral  unity  as  the  land  of  free  labor. 
The  party  for  slavery  and  the  party  against  slavery  are 
no  more,  and  are  merged  in  the  party  of  Union  and 
freedom.  The  States  which  would  have  left  us  are  not 
brought  back  as  subjugated  States,  for  then  we  should 
hold  them  only  so  long  as  that  conquest  could  be  main 
tained;  they  come  to  their  rightful  place  under  the  Con 
stitution  as  original,  necessary,  and  inseparable  members 
of  the  Union. 

We  build  monuments  to  the  dead,  but  no  monuments 
of  victory.  We  respect  the  example  of  the  Romans, 
who  never,  even  in  conquered  lands,  raised  emblems  of 
triumph.  And  our  generals  are  not  to  be  classed  in 
the  herd  of  vulgar  warriors,  but  are  of  the  school  of 
Timoleon,  and  William  of  Nassau,  and  Washington. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  51 


They  have  used  the  sword  only  to  give  peace  to  their 
country  and  restore  her  to  her  place  in  the  great 
assembly  of  the  nations. 

SENATORS  AND  REPRESENTATIVES  of  America :  as  I 
bid  you  farewell,  my  last  words  shall  be  words  of  hope 
and  confidence;  for  now  slavery  is  no  more,  the  Union 
is  restored,  a  people  begins  to  live  according  to  the 
laws  of  reason,  and  republicanism  is  intrenched  in  a 
continent. 


APPENDIX, 


APPENDIX. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  assassinated  at  10.30  p.  m.  on  the  14th  of 
April,  1865,  and  died  at  7.20  a.  m.  the  next  day.  Congress  was  not 
in  session,  but  a  large  number  of  members  hastened  to  the  Capitol  on 
the  receipt  of  the  startling  intelligence,  and  on  the  17th  a  card  was 
published  by  Senator  Foot,  inviting  those  Senators  and  Representa 
tives  who  might  be  in  the  city  the  next  day  to  meet  at  the  Capitol, 
to  consider  what  action  they  would  take  in  relation  to  the  funeral 
ceremonies. 

The  members  of  the  39th  Congress  then  in  Washington  met  in  the 
Senate  reception  room,  at  the  Capitol,  on  the  17th  of  April,  1865,  at 
noon.  Hon.  LAFAYETTE  S.  FOSTER  of  Connecticut,  President  pro 
te?n.  of  the  Senate,  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  the  Hon.  SCHUYLER 
COLFAX  of  Indiana,  Speaker  of  the  House  in  the  38th  Congress, 
was  chosen  secretary. 

Senator  FOOT,  of  Vermont,  who  was  visibly  affected,  stated  that 
the  object  of  the  meeting  was  to  make  arrangements  relative  to  the 
funeral  of  the  deceased  President  of  the  United  States. 

On  motion  of  Senator  SUMIVER,  of  Massachusetts,  a  committee  of 
four  members  from  each  house  was  ordered  to  report  at  4  p.  m.,  what 
action  would  be  fitting  for  the  meeting  to  take.  The  Chairman  ap 
pointed  Senators  Sumner  of  Massachusetts,  Harris  of  New  York, 
Johnson  of  Maryland,  Ramsey  of  Minnesota,  and  Conness  of  Cali 
fornia,  and  Representatives  Washburne  of  Illinois,  Smith  of  Ken 
tucky,  Schenck  of  Ohio,  Pike  of  Maine,  and  Coffroth  of  Pennsylvania; 
and  on  motion  of  Mr.  Schenck,  the  Chairman  and  Secretary  of  the 
meeting  were  added  to  the  Committee,  and  then  the  meeting  ad 
journed  until  4  p.  m. 


APPENDIX. 


The  meeting  re-assembled  at  4  p.  m.,  pursuant  to  adjournment. 

Mr.  SUMNER,  from  the  Committee  heretofore  appointed,  reported 
that  they  had  selected  as  pall-bearers  on  the  part  of  the  Sen 
ate  :  Mr.  Foster  of  Connecticut ;  Mr.  Morgan  of  New  York ;  Mr. 
Johnson  of  Maryland;  Mr.  Yates  of  Illinois;  Mr.  Wade  of  Ohio, 
and  Mr.  Conness  of  California.  On  the  part  of  the  House :  Mr. 
Dawes  of  Massachusetts ;  Mr.  Coffroth  of  Pennsylvania;  Mr.  Smith* 
of  Kentucky ;  Mr.  Colfax  of  Indiana ;  Mr.  Worthington  of  Nevada, 
and  Mr.  Washburne  of  Illinois.  They  also  recommended  the  ap 
pointment  of  one  member  of  Congress  from  each  State  and  Territory 
to  act  as  a  Congressional  Committee  to  accompany  the  remains  of  the 
late  President  to  Illinois,  and  presented  the  following  names  as  such 
Committee,  the  Chairman  of  the  meeting  to  have  the  authority  of 
appointing  hereafter  for  the  States  and  Territories  not  represented 
to-day  from  which  members  may  be  present  at  the  Capitol  by  the 
day  of  the  funeral : 

.  Maine,  Mr.  Pike;  New  Hampshire,  Mr.  E.  II.  Rollins;  Vermont, 
Mr.  Foot;  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Sumner;  Rhode  Island,  Mr.  Anthony; 
Connecticut,  Mr.  Dixon ;  New  York,  Mr.  Harris ;  Pennsylvania, 
Mr.  Cowan;  Ohio,  Mr.  Schenck;  Kentucky,  Mr.  Smith;  Indiana, 
Mr.  Julian:  Illinois,  the  delegation;  Michigan,  Mr.  Chandler;  Iowa, 
Mr.  Haiian ;  California,  Mr.  Shannon ;  Minnesota,  Mr.  Ramsey ; 
Oregon,  Mr.  Williams;  Kansas,  Mr.  S.  Clarke;  West  Virginia,  Mr. 
Whalcy ;  Nevada,  Mr.  Nye ;  Nebraska,  Mr.  Hitchcock ;  Colorado, 
Mr.  Bradford ;  Dakota,  Mr.  Todd ;  Idaho,  Mr.  Wallace. 

The  Committee  also  recommended  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Sergeants-at-Arms  of  the  Senate  and  House 
with  their  .necessary  assistants  be  requested  to  attend  the  Committee 


APPENDIX.  57 


accompanying  the  remains  of  the  late  President,  and  to  make  all  the 
necessary  arrangements. 

All  of  which  was  concurred  in  unanimously. 

Mr.  SUMNEK  from  the  same  Committee  also  reported  the  following, 
which  was  unanimously  agreed  to : 

The  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  now 
assembled  in  Washington,  humbly  confessing  their  dependence  upon 
Almighty  God  who  rules  all  that  is  done  for  human  good,  make 
haste,  at  this  informal  meeting,  to  express  the  emotions  with  which 
they  have  been  filled  by  the  appalling  tragedy  which  has  deprived 
the  Nation  of  its  head  and  covered  the  land  with  mourning ;  and  in 
further  declaration  of  their  sentiments  unanimously  resolve  : 

1.  That  in   testimony  of  their  veneration  and  affection    for  the 
illustrious  dead,  who  has  been  permitted  under  Providence  to  do  so 
much  for  his  country  and  for  liberty,  they  will  unite  in  the  funeral 
services,  and  by  an  appropriate  Committee  will  accompany  hit,  re 
mains  to  their  place  of  burial  in  the  State  from  which  he  was  taken 
for  the  national  service. 

2.  That  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who,  by  the  benignant 
favor  of  Republican  institutions,  rose  from  humble  beginnings  to  the 
heights  of  power  and  fame,  they  recognize  an  example  of  purity, 
simplicity  and  virtue,  which  should  be  a  lesson  to  mankind ;  while 
in  his  death  they  recognize  a  martyr,  whose  memory  will  become 
more  precious  as  men  learn  to  prize  those  principles  of  constitutional 
order  and  those  rights,  civil,  political,  and  human,  for  which  he  was 
made  a  sacrifice. 

3.  That  they  invite  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  sol 
emn  proclamation,  to  recommend  to  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to  assemble  on  a  day  to  be  appointed  by  him,  publicly  to  testify 
their  grief,  and  to  dwell  on  the  good  which  has  been  done  on  earth 
by  him  whom  we  now  mourn. 

4.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  communicated  to  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  ;  and  also,  that  a  copy  be  communicated 
to  the  afflicted  widow  of  the  late  President,  as  an  expression  of 
sympathy  in  her  great  bereavement. 

The  meeting  then  adjourned. 


The  funeral  ceremonies  took  place  in  the  East  room  of  the  Execu 
tive  Mansion,  at  noon,  on  the  19th  of  April,  and  the  remains  were 
then  escorted  to  the  Capitol,  where  they  lay  in  state  in  the  rotundo. 


58  APPENDIX. 


On  the  morning  of  April  21,  the  remains  were  taken  from  the 
Capitol  and  placed  in  a  funeral  car,  in  which  they  were  taken  to 
Springfield,  Illinois,  accompanied  by  the  Congressional  Committee. 
Halting  at  the  principal  cities  along  the  route,  that  appropriate 
honors  might  be  paid  to  the  deceased,  the  funeral  cortege  arrived  on 
the  3d  of  May  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  the  next  day  the  remains 
were  deposited  in  Oak  Ridge  cemetery  near  that  city. 

President  JOHNSCW,  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress  at  the 
commencement  of  the  session  of  1865-'66,  thus  announced  the  death 
of  his  predecessor : 

"  To  express  gratitude  to  God,  in  the  name  of  the  people,  for  the 
preservation  of  the  United  States,  is  my  first  duty  in  addressing  you. 
Our  thoughts  next  revert  to  the  death  of  the  late  President  by  an 
act  of  parricidal  treason.  The  grief  of  the  nation  is  still  fresh ;  it 
finds  some  solace  in  the  consideration  that  he  lived  to  enjoy  the  high 
est  proof  of  its  confidence  by  entering  on  the  renewed  term  of  the 
Chief  Magistracy  to  which  he  had  been  elected ;  that  he  brought 
the  civil  war  substantially  to  a  close ;  that  his  loss  was  deplored  in 
all  parts  of  the  Union  ;  and  that  foreign  nations  have  rendered  jus 
tice  to  his  memory." 

Hon.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE,  of  Illinois,  immediately  after  the  Presi 
dent's  message  had  been  read  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
offered  the  following  joint  resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  one  member  from  each  State  repre 
sented  in  this  House  be  appointed  on  the  part  of  this  House,  to  join 
such  committee  as  may  be  appointed  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  to 
consider  and  report  by  what  token  of  respect  and  affection  it  may  be 
proper  for  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  express  the  deep 
sensibility  of  the  nation  to  the  event  of  the  decease  of  their  late 
President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  that  so  much  of  the  message  of  the 
President  as  refers  to  that  melancholy  event  be  referred  to  said  com 
mittee. 


APPENDIX. 


On  motion  of  Hon.  SOLOMON  FOOT,  the  Senate  unanimously  con 
curred  in  the  passage  of  the  resolution,  and  the  following  joint  com 
mittee  was  appointed — thirteen  on  the  part  of  the  Senate  and  one 
for  every  State  represented  (twenty-four)  on  the  part  of  the  House 
of  Representatives : 

SENATE.  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


Hon.  Solomon  Foot Vt. 

Hon.  Richard  Yates 111. 

Hon.  Benj.  F.  Wade Ohio. 

Hon.  Win.  Pitt  Fessenden  .  .Me. 

Hon.  Henry  Wilson Mass. 

Hon.  James  R.  Doolittle. . .  Wis. 

Hon.  Jas.  H.  Lane Ka. 

Hon.  Ira  Harris N.  Y. 

Hon.  Jas.  W.  Nesmith.  .Oregon. 

Hon.  Henry  S.  Lane Ind. 

Hon.  Waitman  T.  Willey .  W.Va. 

Hon.  Chas.  R.  Buckalew Pa. 

lion.  John  B.  Henderson  —  Mo. 


Hon.  Ellihu  B.  Washburne . .  Ill, 

Hon.  James  G.  Blame Me. 

Hon.  James  W.  Patterson .  N.  H. 

Hon.  Justin  S.  Merrill Vt. 

Hon.  Nathaniel  P.  Banks  .Mass. 
Hon.  Thomas  A.  Jenckcs . .  R.  I. 

Hon.  Henry  C.  Deming Ct. 

Hon.  John  A.  Griswold. .  .N.  Y. 
Hon.  Edwin  R.  V.  Wright. N.  J. 

Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens Pa. 

Hon.  John  A.  Nicholson Del. 

Hon.  Francis  Thomas Md. 

Hon.  Robert  C.  Schenck.  .Ohio. 
Hon.  George  S.  Shanklin. .  -Ky. 

Hon.  Godlove  S.  Orth Ind. 

Hon.  Joseph  W.  McClurg  . .  Mo. 
Hon.  Fernando  C.  Beamau .  Mich. 
Hon.  John  A.  Kasson  ....  Iowa. 

Hon.  Itliamar  C.  Sloan Wis. 

Hon.  William  Higby Cal. 

Hon.  William  Windom.  ..Minn. 
Hon.  J.  H.  D.  Henderson,  Oregon. 

Hon.  Sidney  Clarke Kansas. 

Hon.  Kellian  V.  Whaley .  W.  Va. 

That  committee,  by  Hon.  Mr.  FOOT,  made  the  following  report, 
which  was  concurred  in  by  both  Houses  ncm.  con. 

Whereas  the  melancholy  event  of  the  violent  and  tragic  death  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  having  oc 
curred  during  the  recess  of  Congress,  and  the  two  Houses  sharing  in 
the  general  grief  and  desiring  to  manifest  their  sensibility  upon  the 
occasion  of  the  public  bereavement :  Therefore, 


60  APPENDIX. 


Be  it  resolved  by  the  Senate,  (the  House  of  Representatives  con 
curring,)  That  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  will  assemble  in  the 
Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  Monday,  the  12th  day  of 
February  next,  that  being  his  anniversary  birthday,  at  the  hour  of 
twelve  meridian,  and  that,  in  the  presence  of  the  two  Houses  there 
assembled,  an  address  upon  the  life  and  character  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  be  pronounced  by  Hon. 
Edwin  M.  Stanton ;  and  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  pro  tern- 
pore  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  be  requested 
to  invite  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  heads  of  the  several 
Departments,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  representatives 
of  the  foreign  governments  near  this  Government,  and  such  officers 
of  the  army  and  navy  as  have  received  the  thanks  of  Congress  who 
may  then  be  at  the  seat  of  Government,  to  be  present  on  the  occa 
sion. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United 
States  be  requested  to  transmit  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  to  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  and  to  assure  her  of  the  profound  sympathy  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress  for  her  deep  personal  affliction,  and  of  their  sin 
cere  condolence  for  the  late  national  bereavement. 

The  Hon.  GEORGE  BANCROFT  of  New  York,  in  response  to  an 
invitation  from  the  joint  committee,  consented  to  deliver  the  address, 
(Mr.  Stanton  having  previously  declined.) 


On  the  morning  of  the  12th  of  February,  1865,  the  Capitol  was 
closed  to  all  except  the  members  of  Congress.  At  ten  o'clock  the  doors 
leading  to  the  rotundo  were  opened  to  those  to  whom  tickets  of  ad 
mission  had  been  extended,  and  the  spacious  galleries  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  were  soon  crowded.  The  Speaker's  desk  was 
draped  in  mourning,  and  chairs  were  placed  upon  the  floor  for  the 
invited  guests. 

At  12.30  p.  in.,  the  members  of  the  Senate,  following  their  Presi 
dent  pro  tempore  and  their  Secretary,  and  preceded  by  their  Sergeant- 
at-Arms,  entered  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 


APPENDIX.  61 


occupied  the  seats  reserved  for  them  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  main 
aisle. 

The  President  pro  tcmpore  occupied  the  Speaker's  chair,  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  sitting  at  his  left.  The  Chaplains  of  the 
Senate  and  of  the  House  were  seated  on  the  right  and  left  of  the 
Presiding  Officers  of  their  respective  Houses. 

Shortly  afterward  the  President  of  the  United  States,  with  the 
members  of  his  Cabinet,  entered  the  Hall  and  occupied  seats,  the 
President  in  front  of  the  Speaker's  table,  and  his  Cabinet  immediately 
on  his  right. 

Immediately  after  the  entrance  of  the  President,  the  Chief  Justice 
and  the  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  entered  the  Hall  and  occupied  seats  next  to  the  President,  on 
the  right  of  the  Speaker's  table. 

The  others  present  were  seated  as  follows : 

The  Heads  of  Departments,  with  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  next  to 
the  President,  on  the  left  of  the  Speaker's  table ; 

Officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  who,  by  name,  have  received  the 
thanks  of  Congress,  next  to  the  Supreme  Court,  on  the  right  of  the 
Speaker's  table ; 

Assistant  Heads  of  Departments,  Governors  of  States  and  Terri 
tories,  and  the  Mayors  of  Washington  and  Georgetown,  directly  in 
the  rear  of  the  Heads  of  Departments ; 

The  Chief  Justice  and  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  and  the 
Chief  Justice  and  Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  directly  in  the  rear  of  the  Supreme  Court ; 

The  Heads  of  Bureaus  in  the  Departments,  directly  in  the  rear  of 
the  officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy  ; 

Representatives  on  cither  side  of  the  Hall,  in  the  rear  of  those 


62  APPENDIX. 


invited,  four  rows  of  seats  on  either  side  of  the  main  aisles  being  re 
served  for  Senators ; 

The  Orator  of  the  day,  Hon.  George  Bancroft,  at  the  table  of  the 
Clerk  of  the  House ; 

The  Chairmen  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  Arrangements,  at  the 
right  and  left  of  the  orator,  and  next  to  them  the  Secretary  of  the 
Senate  and  the  Clerk  of  the  House  ; 

The  other  officers  of  the  Senate  and  of  the  House,  on  the  floor  at 
the  right  and  the  left  of  the  Speaker's  platform. 

When  order  was  restored,  at  twelve  o'clock  and  twenty  minutes 
p.  m.,  the  Marine  band,  stationed  in  the  vestibule,  played  appropriate 
dirges. 

Hon.  LAFAYETE  S.  FOSTER,  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate, 
called  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  to  order  at  12.30. 

Rev.  DR.  BOYNTON,  Chaplain  of  the  House,  offered  the  following 
prayer : 

Almighty  God,  who  dost  inhabit  eternity,  while  we  appear  but 
for  a  little  moment  and  then  vanish  away,  we  adore  The  Eternal 
Name.  Infinite  in  power  and  majesty,  and  greatly  to  be  feared  art 
Thou.  All  earthly  distinctions  disappear  in  Thy  presence,  and  we 
come  before  Thy  throne  simply  as  men,  fallen  men,  condemned 
alike  by  Thy  law,  and  justly  cut  off  through  sin  from  communion 
with  Thee.  But  through  Thy  infinite  mercy,  a  new  way  of  access 
has  been  opened  through  Thy  Son,  and  consecrated  by  His  blood. 
We  come,  in  that  all-worthy  Name,  and  plead  the  promise  of  par 
don  and  acceptance  through  Him.  By  the  imposing  solemnities  of 
this  scene  we  are  carried  back  to  the  hour  when  the  nation  heard, 
and  shuddered  at  the  hearing,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  dead — was 
murdered.  We  would  bow  ourselves  submissively  to  Him  by  whom 


APPENDIX.  63 


that  awful  Lour  was  appointed.  We  Ibow  to  the  stroke,  that  fell  on 
the  country  in  the  very  hour  of  its  triumph,  and  hushed  all  its  shouts 
of  victory  to  one  voiceless  sorrow.  "The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord 
hath  taken  away.  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  The  shadow 
of  that  death  has  not  yet  passed  from  the  heart  of  the  nation,  as  this 
national  testimonial  bears  witness  to-day.  The  gloom  thrown  from 
these  surrounding  emblems  of  death  is  fringed,  we  know,  with  the 
glory  of  a  great  triumph,  and  the  light  of  a  great  and  good  man's 
memory.  Still,  O  Lord,  may  this  hour  bring  to  us  the  proper  warn 
ing!  "Be  ye  also  ready;  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the 
Son  of  Man  cometh."  Any  one  of  us  may  be  called  as  suddenly  as 
he  whom  we  mourn. 

We  worship  Thee  as  the  God  of  our  fathers.  Thou  didst  trace 
for  them  a  path  over  the  trackless  sea,  and  bring  them  to  these  shores, 
bearing  with  them  the  seed  of  a  great  dominion.  We  thank  Thee 
that  the  life-power  of  the  young  nation  they  planted,  received 
from  Thee  such  energy,  guidance,  and  protection,  that  it  spread 
rapidly  over  the  breadth  of  the  continent,  carrying  with  it  Christian 
liberty,  churches,  schools,  and  all  the  blessings  of  a  Christian  civili 
zation.  We  thank  Thee  that  the  progress  of  the  true  American  life 
has  been  irresistible,  because  sustained  by  Thy  eternal  counsels  and 
Thy  almighty  power,  and  because  the  might  of  God  was  in  this 
national  life.  We  have  seen  it  sweeping  all  opposition  away,  grind 
ing  great  systems  and  parties  to  powder,  and  breaking  in  pieces  the 
devices  of  men  ;  and  Thou  hast  raised  up  for  it  heroic  defenders  in 
every  hour  of  peril.  We  thank  Thee,  0  Strong  Defender !  And 
when  treason  was  hatching  its  plot  and  massing  its  armies,  then,  0 
God  of  Israel,  who  didst  bring  David  from  the  sheepfold,  Thou 
gavest  one  reared  in  the  humble  cabin  to  become  the  hope  and  stay 


G4  APPENDIX. 


of  this  great  people  in  their  most  perilous  hour,  to  shield  them  in 
disaster  and  lead  them  to  final  victory. 

We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  gavest  us  an  honest  man,  simple- 
hearted  and  loving  as  a  child,  but  with  a  rugged  strength  that  needed 
only  culture  and  discipline.  Thanks  be  to  God  that  this  discipline 
was  granted  him  through  stern  public  trial,  domestic  sorrow,  and 
Thy  solemn  providences,  till  the  mere  politician  was  overshadowed 
by  the  nobler  growth  of  his  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  till  he  came, 
as  we  believe,  into  sympathy  with  Christ,  and  saw  that  we  could 
succeed  only  by  doing  justice.  Then,  inspired  by  Thee,  he  uttered 
those  words  of  power  which  changed  three  millions  of  slaves  into 
men — the  great  act  which  has  rendered  his  name  forever  illustrious 
and  secured  the  triumph  of  our  cause.  We  think  of  him  almost  as 
the  prophet  of  his  era.  Thou  didst  make  that  honest,  great-hearted 
man  the  central  figure  of  his  age,  setting  upon  goodness,  upon  moral 
grandeur,  the  seal  of  Thine  approval  and  the  crown  of  victory.  We 
bless  Thee  that  he  did  not  die  until  assured  of  victory,  until  he  knew 
that  his  great  work  was  done,  and  he  had  received  all  the  honor  that 
earth  could  bestow,  and  then  we  believe  Thou  didst  give  him  a 
martyr's  crown.  We  thank  Thee  that  we  have  this  hope  for  the 
illustrious  dead. 

Great  reason  have  we  also  to  thank  Thee  that  such  was  the  enduring 
strength  of  our  institutions  that  they  received  no  perceptible  shock 
from  the  death  of  even  such  a  man  and  in  such  an  hour,  and  that 
Thou  didst  provide  for  that  perilous  moment  one  whose  strength 
was  sufficient  to  receive  and  bear  the  weight  of  government,  and 
who,  we  trust,  will  work  out  the  great  problem  of  Christian  freedom 
to  its  final  solution,  and  by  equal  law  and  equal  rights  bind  this 
great  people  into  one  inseparable  whole. 

We  thank  Thee  that  the  representatives  of  the  nation  have  come 


APPENDIX.  65 


to  sit  to-day  iu  the  shadow  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  tomb,  to  express 
once  more  their  now  chastened  sorrow.  May  they  all  reconsecrate 
themselves  to  those  principles  which  made  him  worthy  to  be  remem 
bered  thus,  and  then  a  redeemed  and  transfigured  land  will  be  a  fit 
ting  monument  for  him  and  for  them. 

Endow  the  President  with  wisdom  equal  to  his  great  responsibili 
ties,  that  the  blessings  of  a  whole  nation  may  also  be  given  to  him. 
May  his  advisers,  our  judges,  and  our  legislators,  be  constantly 
instructed  by  Thee. 

May  Thy  blessing  rest  on  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  by 
whose  skill  and  courage  our  triumph  was  won ;  upon  our  soldiers  and 
sailors ;  upon  our  people,  and  on  those  who  are  struggling  on  toward 
a  perfect  manhood. 

Bless  these  eminent  men  the  honored  representatives  of  Foreign 
Powers.  Remember  the  sovereigns  and  people  they  represent. 
We  thank  Thee  that  peace  reigns  with  them  as  with  us.  May  it 
continue  until  the  nations  shall  learn  war  no  more. 

Remember  Abraham  Lincoln's  widow  aud  family.  Comfort  them 
in  their  sore  bereavement.  May  they  be  consoled  to  know  how 
much  the  father  and  husband  is  loved  and  honored  still. 

Give  Divine  support  to  the  distinguished  orator  of  the  day.  May 
he  so  speak  as  to  impress  the  whole  nation's  mind.  Prepare  us  to 
live  as  men  in  this  age  should,  that  we  may  be  received  into  Thy 
Heavenly  Kingdom,  and  to  Thy  name  shall  be  the  praise  and  the 
glory  forevermore.  Amen. 

Hon.  LAFAYETTE  S.  FOSTER,  President  protcmpore  of  the  Senate, 
in  introducing  the  orator  of  the  day,  said : 

No  ordinary  occasion  could  have  convened  this  august  assemblage. 

For  four  weary  years  the  storm  of  war,  of  civil  war,  raged  fiercely 
over  our  country.  The  blood  of  the  best  and  bravest  of  her  sons 


66  APPENDIX 


was  freely  shed  to  preserve  her  name  and  place  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth.  In  April  last,  the  dark  clouds  which  had  so  long  hung 
heavily  and  gloomily  over  our  heads,  were  all  dispersed,  and  the 
light  of  peace,  more  welcome  even  than  the  vernal  sunshine,  glad 
dened  the  eyes  and  the  hearts  of  our  people.  Shouts  of  joy  and 
songs  of  triumph  echoed  through  the  land.  The  hearts  of  the  devout 
poured  themselves  in  orisons  and  thanksgivings  to  the  God  of  battles 
and  of  nations  that  the  most  wicked  and  most  formidable  rebellion 
ever  known  in  human  history  had  been  effectually  crushed,  and  our 
country  saved. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  abounding  joy,  suddenly  and  swiftly  as 
the  lightning's  flash  came  the  fearful  tidings  that  the  Chief  Magis 
trate  of  the  Republic — our  President — loved  and  honored  as  few  men 
ever  were — so  honest,  so  faithful,  so  true  to  his  duty  and  his  country, 
had  been  foully  murdered — had  fallen  by  the  bullet  of  an  assassin. 
All  hearts  were  stricken  with  horror.  The  transition  from  extreme 
joy  to  profound  sorrow  was  never  more  sudden  and  universal.  Had 
it  been  possible  for  a  stranger,  ignorant  of  the,  truth,  to  look  over 
our  land,  he  would  have  supposed  that  there  had  come  upon  us 
some  visitation  of  the  Almighty  not  less  dreadful  than  that  which 
once  fell  on  ancient  Egypt  on  that  fearful  night  when  there  was 
not  a  house  where  there  was  not  one  dead. 

The  nation  wept  for  him. 

After  being  gazed  upon  by  myriads  of  loving  eyes,  under  the  dome 
of  this  magnificent  Capitol,  the  remains  of  our  President  were  borne 
in  solemn  procession  through  our  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  all 
draped  in  the  habilaments  of  sorrow,  the  symbols  and  tokens  of  pro 
found  and  heartfelt  grief,  to  their  final  resting  place  in  the  capital 
of  his  own  State.  There  he  sleeps,  peacefully,  embalmed  in  his 
country's  tears. 


APPENDIX.  67 


The  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
have  deemed  it  proper  to  commemorate  this  tragic  event  by  appro 
priate  services.  This  day,  the  birth-day  of  him  whom  we  mourn, 
has  properly  been  selected.  An  eminent  citizen,  distinguished  by 
his  labors  and  services  in  high  and  responsible  public  positions  at 
home  and  abroad — whose  pen  has  instructed  the  present  age  in  the 
history  of  his  country,  and  done  much  to  transmit  the  fame  and  re 
nown  of  that  country  to  future  ages — Hon.  George  Bancroft — will 
now  deliver  a  discourse. 

Hon.  GEORGE  BANCROFT  (who  on  coining  forward  to  the  Clerk's 
desk  was  greeted  with  warm  demonstrations  of  applause)  then  pro 
ceeded  to  deliver  the  Memorial  Address. 

The  exercises  of  the  day  were  closed  by  the  following  prayer  and 
benediction  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  GRAY,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate : 

God  of  a  bereaved  nation,  from  Thy  high  and  holy  Habitation 
look  down  upon  us  and  suitably  impress  us  to-day,  with  a  sense  that 
God  only  is  great.  Kings  and  Presidents  die;  but  Thou,  the  Uni 
versal  Ruler,  livest  to  roll  on  thine  undisturbed  affairs  forever,  from 
Thy  Throne.  A  wail  has  gone  up  from  the  heart  of  the  nation  to 
heaven — 0,  hear,  and  pity,  and  assuage,  and  save.  We  pray  that 
Thou  wilt  command  thy  blessing  now,  which  is  life  forevermore, 
upon  the  family  of  the  President  dead;  upon  the  President  living 
upon  the  Ministers  of  state;  upon  the  united  Houses  of  Congress; 
upon  the  Judges  of  our  Courts  ;  upon  the  officers  of  the  Army  and 
the  Navy ;  upon  the  broken  families  and  desolated  homes  all  over  the 
land;  and  especially  upon  the  nation.  And  grant  that  grace  and 
peace  and  mercy  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God 
the  Father,  and  the  fellowship  of  God  the  Spirit,  may  rest  upon  and 
abide  with  us  all,  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 

The  Senators  then  returned  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  the  Presi- 


68  APPENDIX. 


dent  of  the  United  States,  the  orator  of  the  day,  and  the  invited 
guests  withdrew,  the  Marine  Band,  stationed  in  the  amphitheater, 
performing  national  airs. 

Hon.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE,  of  Illinois,  after  the  House  had  resumed 
the  transaction  of  business,  by  unanimous  consent,  introduced  the 
following  concurrent  resolutions ;  which  were  read,  considered,  and 
agreed  to : 

Resolved,  (the  Senate  concurring,)  That  the  thanks  of  Congress 
be  presented  to  Hon.  George  Bancroft  for  the  appropriate  memorial 
address  delivered  by  him  on  the  life  and  services  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  in  the  Representatives 
Hall  before  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  their  invited  guests,  on  the 
12th  day  of  February,  1866,  and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a 
copy  for  publication. 

Resolved,  That  the  chairmen  of  the  joint  committee  appointed  to 
make  the  necessary  arrangements  to  carry  into  effect  the  resolution 
of  this  Congress  in  relation  to  the  memorial  exercises  in  honor  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  be  requested  to  communicate  to  Mr.  Bancroft  the 
aforegoing  resolution,  receive  his  answer  thereto,  and  present  the 
same  to  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

These  resolutions  were  transmitted  to  the  Senate,  where,  on  mo 
tion  of  the  Hon.  Solomon  Foot,  of  Vermont,  they  were  considered 
by  unanimous  consent,  and  concurred  in. 


In  the  Senate,  on  the  16th  of  February,  Hon.  Mr.  FOOT  stated 
that  in  pursuance  of  the  concurrent  resolutions  of  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  adopted  on  the  12th  instant,  the  chairmen  of  the  joint  com 
mittee  of  arrangements  on  the  memorial  exercises  of  the  late  President 
of  the  United  States,  Abraham  Lincoln,  had  placed  a  certified  copy 
of  said  concurrent  resolutions  in  the  hands  of  Hon.  George  Bancroft, 
and  had  requested  of  him  a  copy  of  his  address  on  the  occasion  re 
ferred  to  for  publication,  as  would  appear  from  the  following  corre 
spondence,  which  he  moved  be  read,  laid  upon  the  table,  and  printed. 


APPENDIX.  69 


As  no  objection  was  made,  the  Secretary  read  as  follows  : 

THE  CAPITOL,  WASHINGTON, 

February  13,  1866. 

SIR  :  We  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you  an  official  copy  of  the 
two  concurrent  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  on  the  12th  instant,  expressing  the  thanks  of  Con 
gress  for  the  appropriate  memorial  address  delivered  by  you  on  the 
life  and  services  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  instructing  us  to  request  from  you  a  copy  of  the  address 
for  publication. 

Having  shared  the  high  gratification  of  hearing  the  address,  we 
take  pleasure,  in  accordance  with  the  second  of  the  concurrent  reso 
lutions,  in  requesting  you  to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  address  for  publi 
cation. 

We  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  very  great  respect,  your  obedient 
servants, 

SOLOMON  FOOT, 
Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  Senate 

E.  B.  WASHBURNE, 
Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  House. 
Hon.  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  February  14,  1866. 

GENTLEMEN  :  I  have  received  your  letter  of  yesterday  and  a  copy 
of  the  two  concurrent  resolutions  of  Congress  to  which  you  refer. 
The  thanks  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  for  the  per 
formance  of  the  duty  assigned  me,  I  value  as  a  very  distinguished 
honor,  and  I  shall  cheerfully  furnish  a  copy  of  the  address  for  pub 
lication. 

I  remain,  gentlemen,  very  sincerely  yours, 

GEORGE  BANCROFT. 

Hon.  SOLOMON  FOOT, 

Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  Senate. 
Hon.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE, 

Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  House. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  Hon.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE,  of 
Illinois,  made  the  same  statement,  and,  after  the  correspondence 
submitted  had  been  read,  the  House  ordered  an  edition  of  twenty 
thousand  extra  copies. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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